IT'S been a good season so far for Trafalgar South potato growers Sean and Maria Durkin.
Harvest of their 38ha of coliban potatoes began in January and is expected to continue until May.
Unlike most potato growers, who've expanded into large-scale highly-mechanised farming systems, Mr Durkin remains among the few who still hand pick their crop as he has done for the past 36 years.
Mr Durkin said it was a niche he was happy to occupy, supplying about 1400 tonnes of potatoes a year in 25kg or 50kg bags for sale in greengrocer's shops and independent grocery stores.
"I refer to us as 'the Amish farmers' around here," he said.
"We're a bit past the draught horses - we do have tractors - but we're still doing what we used to do 30 years ago to a degree."
During harvest, a tractor pulls a 3m chain through the top soil to expose the potatoes, which the pickers collect in buckets and carry to a line of bags standing along each row.
A machine collects the full bags, propelling them up an elevator and Mr Durkin stacks them on a Chep pallet.
The pallets are unloaded at a flat spot in the paddock and a forklift puts them on to a truck to be taken back to the shed where the pallets are sorted into consignments for each market.
Mr Durkin said personal relationships are important.
The Durkins employ six or seven pickers - one has worked for them for 25 years - and most of the potatoes are sent to WS Williams and Son, in Brisbane, which has been a loyal customer.
Mr Durkin said it had been a challenging growing season, because of an unusually long dry period during spring planting which caused some seed breakdown.
"These potatoes are the best we've dug so far this year," he said.
"I don't always get it right. I try to get it right. Potatoes aren't like oranges or apples on a tree. You can't see them growing and know when they're ready to pick. You can water and fertilise them, control diseases in the plant and hope they grow, but you've got no control over what's happening under the ground ... you just have to do the best you can with what you've got."
Mr Durkin said the recent rain had been a blessing and should be enough to keep their crops going for the rest of the season without irrigation.
