Potatoes & Root Crops
Potatoes & Roots: How It Works
The end-to-end sequence, stage by stage, with nothing skipped.
The module is modelled as an explicit state machine with 8 stages. Every record knows which stage it is at, what has to happen to move on, and what is blocking it if it cannot. Root crops carry the highest working capital and the highest storage risk in UK arable farming. This module runs the full cycle — seed provenance, planting, blight programme, desiccation, harvest, grading and long-term store management — with the store treated as an active, monitored asset rather than a shed the crop goes into.
End to end
How Potatoes & Roots runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Select seed and verify certification
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Plan rotation against soil-borne disease risk
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Plant and record
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Run the blight and nutrition programme
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Desiccate and manage skin set
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Harvest with bruising risk managed
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Grade, load stores and monitor continuously
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Market, despatch and reconcile store losses
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Sequence
The order things happen in
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Stage 1
Select seed and verify certification
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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Stage 2
Plan rotation against soil-borne disease risk
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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Stage 3
Plant and record
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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Stage 4
Run the blight and nutrition programme
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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Stage 5
Desiccate and manage skin set
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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Stage 6
Harvest with bruising risk managed
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
Before you start
What you will need, and what the module handles for you
Most of this comes across automatically once your holding is registered. The list is here so nothing arrives as a surprise.
In practice
Six things Potatoes & Roots changes on day one
None of these requires a new process. They all come from recording the work you already do, once, in a form the rest of the platform can use.
Seed provenance, certification grade and
Seed provenance, certification grade and physiological age tracking.
Planting record with seed rate
Planting record with seed rate, spacing, bed system and depth.
Blight risk modelling with Hutton
Blight risk modelling with Hutton criteria alerting and spray interval management.
Desiccation planning under current authorisation
Desiccation planning under current authorisation constraints.
Harvest scheduling with soil condition
Harvest scheduling with soil condition and bruising risk assessment.
Grading and out-grade analysis by
Grading and out-grade analysis by size, defect and specification.
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Saleable yield per hectare
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 24 Median 45 Upper quartile 85
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Store loss percentage
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 37 Median 50 Upper quartile 84
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Out-grade percentage
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 23 Median 61 Upper quartile 80
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Blight incidence
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 20 Median 51 Upper quartile 70
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Cost per tonne into store
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 27 Median 47 Upper quartile 85
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
Questions answered
What people ask about Potatoes & Roots
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Potatoes & Roots is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Store failure. Mitigated by continuous monitoring and alarm escalation. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
See Potatoes & Roots running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours