Biostee - nieuws

Nieuwsitems

New pictures added from the harvest of the carrots and celeriac.

New equipment pictures added

Crops harvested and started with land improvement

It has been a long time since our last news update from April. A lot of things have happened on the farm since. This spring was very dry, so the potatoes had to be irrigated three times. Before drilling the carrots we also had to wet the ridges in order to drill the crop. After drilling we irrigated another 8mm. The crop is now looking very good. Sadly an accident did happen with our irrigation boom (see picture). Controlling the weeds went well during the dry period but, after all the rain, we still got a lot of seedlings. To date we have lifted potatoes from the varieties Triplo, Agila and Agria. Only the Nicola's are left now because the mother tubers don't want to rot away. We will have to be a bit more patient. The last few years we have had a lot of occasions when we got a heavy downpour in a short time. Especially in the low spots in a field you are faced with water problems. To prevent this we purchased a new land leveller. With this machine, that is steered by RTK-GPS, we can take soil from the high spots and place it in the low spots. The red onions are now good to lift. Between the showers some of the crop was loaded up and stored on the farm. One field of yellow onions has already been harvested. The rest hasn't fully died off yet.

Onions sown, potato planting nearly finished

The spring of 2011 will be remembered as a very early one. Already on March the 15th we drilled our yellow onions. The red varieties followed on March the 28th. We will be planting 3 hectares of seed onions in trays as a trial this year. Nearly all of our potatoes have been planted as well. Only 7 hectares remain. This year we will be growing the variety's Triplo, Agria, Agila and Nicola. Some fields have been planted and ridged in one pass as a test. We now only have to harrow some and ridge them up again with our Ecordiger. We are currently very busy burning off weeds in the onions. These are just emerging. We have also purchased various new machines this year: A Grimme reception hopper, rotary broom, box turner and a Trefler weed harrow. The carrots and celeriac from season 2011 are now sold out. The onions and potatoes are nearly as well.
Read More 07-04-2011

Celeriac processed & packed and received seed potatoes

We have received our seed potatoes a couple of weeks ago. An inspector inspects if the seed potatoes meet the standards, and if all the paperwork has been correctly filled in. At first the tubers are unloaded in potato boxes. This is done for easy handling. After that the potatoes are stored in special Joppe chitting sacks. These are made up of iron racks where open potato sacks hang onto. If the tubers are in an open sack they receive a lot of air and light which gives a nice and hard sprout on the potatoes. These potatoes are planted using a special potato planter (belt planter) which prevents the sprouts breaking off. This gives the potato a kick start as it is already hardened and has sprouted. The potato plant will be quicker to develop, which makes it harvest ready much sooner.

We have also washed our celeriac. After washing the crop is graded, checked and packet on pallets. This is the end product which will be delivered to our customers.

Crops harvested, delivered and maintenance

A lot has happened on our farm during recent times. All of the B-carrots were harvested. This cost a lot of effort due to the extremly wet autumn. It was even requiered to use a second tractor sometimes to help the harvester through wet spots. The quality of the carrots is good. Everything has been stored in boxes and transported into climatised storage. In there the produce is kept at around nil degrees celcius, with a reliatively high hummdity, to prevent dehydration.

All of the celeriac has also been lifted. This is done ideally during late November because the roots are then well matured. This helps to store them for a longer period and keep up quality. The early harvested celeriac has been delivered to the proccesing industry. Over there the crop will be proccesed and used in salades or as ingredient in all sorts of products. Before delivere the crops is cleaned first by passing them through a rotating drum. Knifes, mounted on the outside, cut off any lumps of soil and the roots. After they have passed the drum the remaining roots are cut off by hand.

We are currently busy cleaning all of our machinery. When this is done everything will be moved indoors for maintenance check-ups. Almost all of the fieldwork has been completed, apart from ploughing the celeriac and carrot land. We are also busy making ready (grading, washing, packing, etc.) of onions, carrots, potatoes and celeriac.

Potatoes and celeriac harvested

Luckily we have harvested all of our potatoes. Sadly there are some problems with wet rot and phytopthora. By storing the potatoes in boxes, and drying them a lot, we have the situation currently under control. We have also harvested all of our red onions, plus some loads of yellow onions. Hopefully we will be having some dry spells in the upcoming week to load up the remaining onions and dry them down.

We have also started lifting the celeriac. Normally we use a two phase lifting system to do this but, because these are destined for early delivery, we are using a bunker harvester.

Direct drilling on potato land

After having harvested the potatoes we have used a new direct drill combination to establish the following crop. Behind our John Deere 8420T crawler is a Kongskilde Paragrubber. This machine loosens the soil to a depth of about 30 centimetres. The power harrow then leaves a nice and fluffy seedbed which creates a lot of storage capacity for water. We are drilling either lucerne or grass/clover on the potato land.

At the other picture you can see our Nicola potatoes, taken on July 5th. The left pile has been irrigated twice. The right heap had no irrigation at all. This shows that during dry years, such as this one, irrigating is worthwhile for us. The difference in tuber size and shape is enormous.

Harvesting early potatoes in Zuid-Beijerland

In between the showers we have been harvesting early potatoes during the last few weeks. These went straight onto the lorry because the skin was not fully set. We are harvesting on request so we can work with as little stock as possible. These potatoes are currently lying in the Albert Heijn supermarket.

The HLS strips are looking good. The flower picture was taken at the Kostverlorendijk in Piershil. In the background you can see the red clover with patches of a fierce weed: milky thistles.

This weed is the most problematic we are facing. In good Hoeksche Waards dialect these are named 'snotters'. On the second picture you can see a field of potatoes where this weed has taken over control of the field. The only remedy to this weed is to exhaust it by cutting it down many times. This is done both mechanical and by hand. We also mow them off in crops of lucerne and clover. We have recently changed our cropping plan, and added an extra year to grow more green manure for mowing.

At the following pictures you can see one of our problematic fields, where a lot of people have been wondering what we have been doing. This is a field of carrots where we have used a cultivator to take out spots of milky thistles. This makes the field look like a chess board!

June 2010: Watering and hoeing

During the last couple of weeks we have continued the battle against weeds. The sweetcorn has now been hoe'd after emergance. During the first time this is done with two people. This is done because the maize plants are fairly small and stand 24 centimeter apart in the row. The Ecodan camera has great difficulty seeing the plants in such situations. The potatoes, variety Biogold and Agria, have been irrigated due to the drought problems we have been having. We started with a gift of 25mm but later raised this to 30mm of water. The potatoes will be harvested in August.
Read More 29-06-2010

The battle against weeds continues. Last crops are drilled

Our last crops, B-Carrots and sweet corn, have been drilled last month. The first cut of lucerne was also mown, and the grass/clover fields have been injected with both pig and cattle slurry. We drill 1,8 million carrot seeds per hectare, variety Nerac. After drilling the crop has immediatel been irrigated by an irrigator boom. This prevents that the soil will cap. The sweet corn has already been harrowed twice after drilling. Currently, 26 Polish employees are busy hoeing weeds in our onion and celeriac crops. Almost all of our potatoes have been harrowed and re-ridged with our 'Ecoridger'.
Read More 09-06-2010

Looking for a cooperation

We are looking for:

Fields and/or
Company's that are interested in growing organic products fulltime or shared.

Biostee is a cooperation between farmers that grow and sell organic products together. Due to an increasing amount of interest from our customers we are looking for ways to grow more organic products.

We are thinking about a long term relation.

If you are interested in our request, please contact us. Your reply will be taken with intimacy.

Biostee
p/a Molendijk 121
3284 LH Zuid-Beijerland
Info@biostee.nl

Tel: ard 06-53335662 - Pieter Hugo 06-51232407 - Arian 06-53405827

April 2010: Most crops are planted

A lot has happened in the land during the past month. The grass/clover and onions have been drilled. The potatoes were planted by a contractor. The first celeriac has also been planted. Before all the seed- and plant work the land has been prepared in multiple passes to kill weeds. The onions have been fertilised with nitrogen and lime in the form of Vinasse-lime, a waste product from the sugar factory. In preparation of potato planting the land has been injected with slurry by our crawler using an umbilical injector from a contractor. We have also drilled the flower margins surrounding our fields and made up ridges for carrots. These will be drilled within two weeks.
Read More 02-05-2010

New John Deere 8420T

In January 2010 we bought a John Deere 8420T crawler tractor. Imported from the United Kingdom, this machine will be used for preparing seedbeds during the spring, applying slurry via an umbilical system and ploughing during the autumn. It is fitted with 40 cm wide caterpillar tracks at a width of 1.50 metres. Using this crawler, we will be reducing the pressure on the ground while we are working and, by doing so, we hope to increase our crop yields. We have also invested in a slurry lagoon so we can make full use of applying organic slurry.
Read More 26-03-2010

News March 2010: New website online

The new website from organic farm Biostee has now gone online. On this renewed website you can find information about our company and the products we can produce for you. Via the newspage you can follow the latest news from our farm.
Read More 26-03-2010