FAMILY company Cope has launched Cope Nutrition, a crop nutrition programme, in partnership with crop nutrition specialist, Bionature, which has shown promising results in potato crop trials.
Results from 2025 potato trials at Dyson Farming Research showed a clear yield and value advantage from the Cope Nutrition programme compared with a standard farm programmes. In the variety Elland, yields increased from 65.85 t/ha to 87.13 t/ha, a gain of 21.28 t/ha (32.3%), while Caledonian Rose increased from 31.7 t/ha to 45.9 t/ha, a gain of 14.2 t/ha (44.8%).
Dyson Farming, the agricultural arm of Sir James Dyson’s business, is a major UK potato producer that harvests approximately 12,000 to 15,000 tonnes of potatoes annually across its 36,000 acres and supplies varieties for both pre-pack and processing markets, focusing on sustainable, high-tech methods to improve soil health and reduce environmental impact.
It has collaborated with on previous potato research projects, such as the 36-month Transformative Reduced Input in Potatoes (TRIP) programme led by Dyson Farming Research to develop regenerative, cost-effective methods such as no-tillage and reduced chemical inputs, and with Fibe to harvest potato stems as raw material for the fibre industry. In 2024, Dyson Farming’s Nocton Estate hosted the Potato Days event, where live machinery demonstrations were staged.
Photo: Dyson Farming
