Visit to Ted and Nicoline Vaalburg s farm at:

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1 Visit to Ted and Nicoline Vaalburg s farm at: Zuidervaart 131, 1847 LK Zuid Schermer, North Holland June 2009 BACKGROUND The part owned 260 ha Vaalburg farm was started by Ted s grandfather in 1920 and Ted and Nicoline took it over from Ted s father in Their 14 employee business includes construction, maintenance and deliveries of potatoes and celeriac. Approximately 30% of their income is from processing, 30% from potatoes and 30% from celeriac. Soils range from sandy through to sabulous and heavy clays which all lie approximately 3.5 m below sea level. Cropping includes 96 ha of seed potatoes, 100 ha of celeriac with some swedes and sugar beet plus 45 ha of grass for seed. On taking over the farm they were confronted by a number of problems, many of which they put down to poor soil health, including phoma in their celeriac, drainage problems and high diesel costs associated with heavy machinery. They were also using high levels of N, P and K with noticeably too much leaf on their potato crops. They investigated organic production finding that this provided products with more An introduction to the Vaalburg farm by Ted Vaalburg taste and flavour and customers were happier with the thought of fewer chemical residues in their food. They however steered the middle path, considering that they could reduce their chemical inputs, increase efficiency and maintain a quality product by concentrating on soil health. CTF FARMING SYSTEM The Vaalburgs considered that CTF would be a way of overcoming many of these problems. They converted all their equipment to 3.12 m track width and adopted a mix of non inversion tillage and no till with an RTK guidance system. To reduce compaction damage and to make it easier to extend the axles of harvesters, they changed to harvesting into boxes rather than having bunker harvesters. Harvesting into boxes also reduced the risk of physical damage and its associated increase in phoma. Another advantage of boxes is that they can be loaded directly onto road transport. This change in production methods created wide undriven beds of soil to which homemade compost was also added. Large diameter wheels were seen as a key means of maintaining low pressures in their permanent wheel tracks and giving them traffickability. As part of the complete system they built their own automatic transplanter on a 3.12 m track (see photos). This achieved 5 ha per day in 2009 but 9 ha per day are anticipated with further improvements. They plant between 50,000 and 80,000 plants per ha with each planter head achieving 14 15,000 plants per hour. One man is dedicated to spraying.

2 BENEFITS OF CTF The Vaalburgs believe that they now have a much better chance of increasing their no till farming on their un driven beds where presently they use 50% no till and 50% rotary spading, the latter resulting in a poorer structure than no till. No till has reduced the threat to worms which have become more active. They also find that there is no longer any water lying in the fields, even in the permanent tracks, which after the first few months drained into the beds. If these become excessively rutted, they fill them with a power harrow Overall they have seen a 30 60% increase in profits, made up from: 5 10% increase in yield due to CTF; 5 10% lower cost due to a higher proportion of no till; 5 10% yield increase from the addition of compost. They also consider that they now have healthier crops with better taste and flavour. Although Phoma cant be cured by CTF, it has helped reduce its incidence and severity. The Vaalburgs are very proud of what they do and have coined the phrase: Dare to share your passion for soil, from Vaalburg, naturally Tim Chamen December 2009 Healthier roots of celeriac are more frequently produced when soils are in better health and physical damage during handling is less, as demonstrated by the root on the right showing less scarring from phoma

3 Inter row weeder on customised 3.12 m track width tractor (see detail below)

4 The Vaalburg automatic transplanter with front and rear RTK auto steer and the latest WestTrack tracks on the front axle Root crop lifting the Vaalburg way! Boxes are preferred to avoid bunker harvesters and for easy transfer for road haulage

5 As with all CTF farmers, Ted and Nicoline aspire to great things, all of which are based on extreme care for the soil The Vaalburg s ongoing project is to convert the elevator and wheel position on their potato harvester to fit in with the CTF system