HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR SUBSCRIBERS
No. 1/24 SUBSCRIBER EDITION: please go to potatostorageinsight.com/subscribe to sign up as a Synopsis subscriber. Most of our bulletins are fully accessible only to our subscribers.
Welcome to the January subscribers' edition of our Synopsis bulletin. Synopsis is PSI's monthly update on key news and developments in the world of potato storage.
It's been a quiet month since our last bulletin with holidays dominating for many, but it's important to remember that crops in store still need to be monitored closely. The recent change in the weather to a colder air stream from the Arctic brought its own threats for crops in store. Please see our January Best Practice piece below.
Feedback from stores suggests that crops which went in early and dry are keeping well, those from later, stickier harvests less so. That said, there are starting to be a few indications of variable quality around, so it is important to be sampling your crop to assess how its matching up to market requirements so that you can act accordingly. Far better than getting an unwanted surprise in a month or two's time!
POTATO STORAGE INSIGHT (PSI) ACTIVITY
2024 Store Managers' Course now full
After little more than 6 weeks since our launch at BP2023, the 2024 Potato Store Managers' Course is already fully booked and we are taking names for the reserve list just in case any places come free.
SPoT storage demonstration store project
We are continuing to collect data for this project, being co-ordinated by Potato Storage Insight, SDF Agriculture and GB Potatoes, in conjunction with our partner organisations at the two south Lincolnshire storage sites which include:
Winters Lane Storage S & S Pugh
Produce Quality Centre (Greenwich University) Potato Storage Treatments
NFU Energy Cornerstone Systems
Biofresh/Safestore Certis Belchim
Hutchinsons Restrain
Crop Systems
A date for the Open Day for dissemination of the work has now been set: Tuesday 14 May. Please keep this free. It will be a free-to-attend event and open to all. We will have much more information about our plans for the day in the coming weeks.
There is still capacity for other partners to come on board with the project and organisations making a commitment will receive stand space at Long Sutton at the Open Day event. Please contact Adrian Cunnington on 07970 072260 if this is of interest.
Finally, my thanks to huge number of people who have sent me messages after I was given the British Potato Industry Award at Harrogate; I very much appreciate all of your kind words and thank you once again.
BEST PRACTICE for January/February
Frost protection
Given that we've just had quite a cold period and are moving into deeper January and February, I thought it worthwhile running through some key points on cold weather management in stores as part of this month's best practice guidance.
All potato stores are environments which, as store managers, we need to protect from the effects of the weather as these can be quite damaging to the crops we are storing irrespective of the target market.