I am a potato agronomist (and most definitely not a mathematician!). I work with growers and provide them with advice on the yield and quality of their crops.
My question is about how many samples I need to dig in their fields to get a reasonably accurate (I'm afraid I'm not sure how to quantify "reasonably accurate") indication of the yield in the field and also to be able to identify (and hopefully quantify) the presence of any defects in the potatoes.
My question is about how many samples I need to dig in their fields to get a reasonably accurate (I'm afraid I'm not sure how to quantify "reasonably accurate") indication of the yield in the field and also to be able to identify (and hopefully quantify) the presence of any defects in the potatoes.
- An average potato field (in the UK) is approximately 10ha
- Typical yield varies between 40 and 70t/ha
- Our normal sample size (a 2.5m length of row) weighs roughly 10-12kg
- The defects we are looking to identify and quantify need to done so at the 5% incidence level