TAKE COMPLETE CONTROL
Potato store operators need to take complete control of their stores to ensure the crop they present to their customers is as close to ‘just harvested’ condition as possible.
But achieving that can be harder than it at first seems, says Ray Andrews from Crop Systems Limited, because the potato harvest and crop cooling period clashes head-on with autumn field work:
“There is always a danger that – if checking on potatoes is part of your daily tasks – it will get neglected if something unexpected crops up, such as the main cultivating tractor breaking down or some grain needs loading out.
“If your crop suffers damage at this stage it is an expensive loss because all the costs of planting, growing and harvesting have already been incurred.
“The only situation that is worse is if it comes out of store in unmarketable condition due to poor store practice, because then you can add the storage costs to that bill”, he says.
“This was one of the main motivations for Crop Systems Ltd launching the SmartStor ® controller, which enables operators to monitor and manage their stores remotely.
“It means that, even if you are very busy on other tasks, via a combination of the alarm and management features in the system your retain complete control of the store and the valuable crop it contains.
“Quite apart from the financial advantages of that, it also offers you complete peace of mind”.
In many cases he suggests operators can significantly improve the operational efficiency of their stores without having to make significant investments:
“The priority has to be to ensure that all machinery is operating efficiently, both in terms of how it controls the store and in terms of energy usage.
“If it is not operating efficiently the crop will still be at risk, and storage costs could be considerably higher than they need to be”.
The impending loss of CIPC as a sprouting suppressant makes efficient store operation all the more important, he adds, with the debate around its impending loss helping focus minds on the storage issue:
“If a store is already CIPC compliant then the chances are it is efficient. Stores that failed to meet application limits might not be failing on that level alone; they probably needed significant improvement anyway.
“And if they are already efficient the loss of CIPC will not be as serious an issue as we might at first think, because whatever treatment growers use in future will be used efficiently”.
Losses in store are just part of an overall wastage in potatoes – quoted as being between 25% and 30%.
These start with greening in the field; damage and losses at harvest and during handing; and include rotting and damage caused by disease or nutrient deficiencies:
“Rotting is a real problem. If you react quickly you can minimize the damage caused; but if you do not spot it quickly it can spread to healthy adjacent potatoes and lead to significant losses.
“We can minimize the damage caused by issues like shrinkage by using treatments like humidity”.
The industry will always have to grow an extra percentage of crop, Ray believes, simply because growers have to ensure they meet their contracts and give themselves some leeway in case of problems during the growing cycle:
“The real key to efficiency is not to lose any part of the crop you already grow by not following best practice at all stages of the production cycle.
“And bear in mind that one of our customers managed to store October 2017 harvested potatoes for over 13 months in a new store: that is what you can achieve if you get it right”.