WA Pearce & Sons Farms - Pearce Potatoes

19/06/2026

Yesterday we had a day at The Lincolnshire Show and it was excellent.

We didn't get there last year, and we didn't get to Cereals this year either unfortunately, but the Lincs was fantastic. As ever, it is a real celebration of our county, farming, the vital role we play in food production and agriculture. They also have an excellent Schools Challenges throughout the year, great food, talks, awards and trade stands. Obviously, Andy was hanging his nose over a new Claas combine,but sadly for him, his birthday has already been and gone 😁 Lincs Rural Support Network were there with their Health Hub, and they have opened a really lovely Garden of Contemplation and Reflection close to Cathedral Wood.

Andy bought some new caps for work - like he doesn't already own about 1000, and no, they weren't freebies - we left those for the schoolkids and Schoffel wearing freebie hooverers! I got a new hoodie (which I don't need, but the colour was perfect) and some other bits (always important to support the local economy, right?!) And most importantly, we also had some lovely chats with a lot of people we deal with too.

Now, what's the chances of Andy actually remembering to take some up to date shots of what's happening with all the crops - I have some already for a post, and I am hoping for the potato flowers to put in an appearance soon too.

17/06/2026

We've had an evening out at Dalton Seeds in Eye. They are local seed merchants and processors, and we have grown seed for them in the past - mainly Spring Wheat, but also Triticale, Peas and Beans.

Farmers growing for seed are helping increase the supply of a new variety, producing enough seed for it to become widely available to other growers. As this seed is required to be a higher grade, it is inspected by either NIAB (the National Institute of Agricultural Botany) or Daltons for varietal purity. Also, in the case of cereals, any weeds such as wild oats which could be in the field need removing. This is known as "Wild Oating" or "Rogueing" over here - and in North Lincs it is called "Havering". Weirdly, it is one of my favourite farm jobs - calm, meditative and excellent for your step count, so it is disappointing that it is not currently a role we do.

Andy and Mick used to play rugby with Peter Fox, Dalton's Chairman back in the day, and several years ago I worked there for 6m after redundancy from NatWest Ag. In those days there was also Dalmark Grain so although I enjoyed working there, the Hagberg testing in the lab wasn't a favourite task (the Hagberg Falling Number is a quality test that helps determine whether wheat is suitable for milling and baking)

Daltons restructured in 2018 to focus solely on seed, and there is an absolutely huge amount of storage, processing and production on site - and a lot more sheds than when I was there. Their focus in on service, sales, production and logistics - and their speed and the tech side are super impressive, especially the Track My Seed app.

Really good to see all the changed and catch up with people - we even met George from Senova, ex of Elsoms (a local seed breeder). I might even persuade Andy to dip back into growing for seed 🤔

Elsoms Senova Dalton Seeds

15/06/2026

We do know a lot of farmers, so if you fancied helping the lovely Emma Smith out with her excellent magazine get in touch.

It is a brilliant way to help children learn all about food and farming, which is just so important. So it is also well worth subscribing and makes an excellent present too.

(Meanwhile on our farm, Andy is taking some photos for updates hopefully! We have been in London for a weekend - which included Kew Gardens (not been for yonks) - and around here mending machinery, watching the weather and looking at the rain gauge ... I think that about covers it!)

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04/06/2026

It's only Wednesday night but it feels like it should be Friday at least - lots of crop checking, rain gauge monitoring, a birthday, a funeral, a foot injury* (gratuitous photo attached, look away if needs be!) and lots more - including IRRIGATION (IRRITATION) & BEET ISSUES as demonstrated here:

This year, we have Sugar Beet at both farms - although the fields are only about 6 miles apart as the crow files, it might as well be 60., and as you drive around Lincolnshire there re two types of beet crops:

1) drilled (planted) into a bed of moisture, germinated, up and away and looking good
2) drilled into a dry seed bed, poor or non existent germination, behind where it needs to be, or not emerged at all.

The difference is about 1cm, we think. Both crops were drilled at the same depth, but Moulton Chapel was still moist underneath and the seed drilled into the moisture. Deeping was drier underneath and the soil sat just above moisture.

Deeping was drilled first and rolled after drilling. But we have had to irrigate (we almost never do this, usually potatoes are the only crop we irrigate, and we can only do this at Deeping as we have an abstraction licence) Although it is now growing, way behind where it needs to be and we are having problems controlling weeds. Moulton Chapel was drilled a day later into a rougher seed bed and with hindsight, and one of the driest Aprils ever, we should have also rolled that in.

We were planning to harvest Deeping first, but now will have to think about if we harvest the poor crop first and let the good one grow on, or harvest the better one first and hope the poor one keeps growing - and all because of just 1 cm difference!

We will do an all-crop update shortly and we really are grateful for the rain we have had - but more would be nice! Guinness the Apprentice has set a himself a new and ambitious hunting target (you can probably hear the squirrel laughing) and despite a painful and stupid injury (rushing about, carrying too much, not paying attention) I still managed 2 running time trials and wearing heels to the funeral, because y'know priorities and standards! 😁 and as an aside, next week's weather seems to be a different forecast across all apps at the moment 🤔

02/06/2026

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last few weeks, we have been really busy and out and about. We were also considering a mass rain dance session, but were saved from that (as were any potential viewers!) by last night's rain - though we could do with some more.

Anyway, it is Andy’s birthday today and he always gets some appropriate cards 😃🥔

Whilst he writes some of the farming content here, he doesn't have his own FB page, mostly because he still considers it to be akin to, "Talking to your imaginary friends!" However, he keeps muttering about getting one so he can have Admin rights on this page.....assuming I'd grant them, of course... and even then, the higher authority that is HCFM would get the final say!

28/05/2026

POTATO STORAGE 🥔 No, we don't just, "B**g them all in a shed or a heap and hope for the best" 🙂 as some might think, because that can result in a loss of crop, a loss of money, and a lot more £ on utilities.

Last week Andy had a morning out, all of 11 miles away, at a Strategic Potato Storage Day. It was hosted my SNF Agriculture (our friend Simon) and Potato Storage Insight at a Dyson owned farm nearby. There were about 130 people present and the idea was to give an update on the latest trials and research on the best way to store potatoes.

We are changing our potato store this year so that it is on the same site as the grading equipment. This will be better, but it is sad that it will no longer be at Cranfields as my best days of grading have been spent there (it has its own micro climate - still in shorts at the end of October!) So Andy went to find out more information as potato storage has changed a lot over the years. There were interesting presentations on stores, energy management, ventilation and disease management in store. We think we'll save around 2 weeks worth of work* during the Winter in not having to transport boxes 5 miles from Cranfields to the grader at the main yard. It came as a bit of a shock when we worked out how long this takes!

He had a lot of informative discussions with some exhibitors and a special mention to our follower and customer, Jonathan of HK Timbers, and the Frontier crew for advice on sprout suppression. A big thanks to Snowy (Simon) and Adrian for organising it.

BONUS MENTION - on the weekend, I went to a strength training for runners session in King Lynn (and still feel like Wil E Coyote after he has been steamrollered by Road Runner) Daz who was driving saw the event signage on the way home and asked about it - unfortunately, I'd just woken up at that point (!) so I was probably not, "on top of my game", with replying!



* please note this is a, "Farmer saved 2 week estimation", so it will easily be taken up by other work and won't actually be a time saving 🤔

26/05/2026

We hope everyone has had a lovely bank holiday. It has been a busy week and weekend here - and I have learned now that I really am too old to be out every night - I just can't hack it any more!

However our lovely friend Annette of Awaken Sports Therapy shared this and we whilst we agree with them all, we wholeheartedly endorse number 4!

Hope you've all had a glorious bank holiday weekend! Thoughts for the week...

22/05/2026

The other day I ran the Deeping 10k race as I hadn't run it since 2009. Bit slower than I would have liked (and 1 min slower than Lincoln 10k) but it was more open and had very long, straight, headwind-y bits.

On one of these, I saw this bottle that had been dumped in a field. This post is not a critique from Andy as a wine connoisseur (snob!) - and whilst it is unusual to see empty wine bottles, sadly litter is something we often find, mostly plastic bottles, packaging and fast food wrappers along with deflated helium balloons.

It should not need to be said but, ** Please don’t throw any litter into fields. ** Apart from being thoughtless, it creates real risks. Glass and rubbish can injure wildlife and livestock, damage expensive farm machinery causing hundreds of £ of damage, and also create hazards for the people working there.

There can also be a fire risk. Glass bottles can act like magnifying glasses and focus the sun’s rays onto dry vegetation. It might sound unlikely in the UK, but with the hotter, drier weather we are increasingly getting, it absolutely is possible.

Fields are workplaces, food production areas and habitats for wildlife - not somewhere to dump rubbish out of a car window. If you take it with you, please take it home again too.

15/05/2026

Happy Anniversary to us - I know right, clearly I was a child bride! 😉

And it's always a good excuse to dig out this bride and groom spud picture which our friend Emily sent us a few years ago.

It is also 2 weeks until Andy’s birthday, so if anyone has a suitable “farm-catch-up-easy-to-use agricultural-helper-always-get-the-right-weather” piece of kit (or could invent one in time) that would be great thanks 🙏 He's always difficult to buy for whereas I'm basically trainers and perfume!

Happy Friday everyone, and may the weather bring us all what we need x