No. 11/23 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 our November subscriber edition of Synopsis, PSI's latest update featuring news and technical titbits on potato storage.
First of all, a reminder if it has somehow passed you by, that BP2023, the latest biennial landmark for the potato industry, takes place in Harrogate on 22/23 November. We will be on Stand 135 and hope to see you there. We'd very much welcome feedback on the first two years of PSI and Synopsis... plus there's a prize for every visitor to our stand!
Unfortunately, the tail on this year's harvest is going to be a long on with far too many acres remaining in the ground as we move into the beginning of winter. For the third month in a row, we are devoting our Best Practice feature for November to more in-depth information on dealing with wet crop. With many fields unavoidably waterlogged to one degree or another, it is going to make storage for any period at the least challenging and more likely almost impossible for any crop that has spent any amount of time encapsulated in water.
Along similar lines, this month's Technical Insight goes back to basics providing more information on the disease that causes huge losses to potato crops across the world: bacterial soft rot.
It is a disease you can't be complacent about and having experienced some unmitigated disasters in a few stores in recent years, it is perhaps worth re-stressing the key messages for dealing with this bacterial infection that can rapidly overtake any attempt to control it.
Also appearing on the horizon, in addition to a few dry rot outbreaks from early warm harvests, are a number of internal defects so please ensure you do some QC checks before committing to long term storage...
Finally, a reminder that, for detailed technical advice, there still remains the option to access the AHDB archive online or you can speak to Adrian at PSI on 07970 072260.
POTATO STORAGE INSIGHT (PSI) ACTIVITY
Industry initiative progress
Work at PSI has continued on the SPoT storage initiative outlined last month. The project will include a storage open day with exhibition space for partners in May 2024. Our first technical workshop meeting for the project will be held on Tuesday 5th December at the Wisbech Rugby Club, Chapel Road, Wisbech. PE13 1RG. Places can now be booked through GB Potatoes: register at www.gb-potatoes.co.uk/events. There's more detail below.
If you are a commercial supplier involved in storage and would like to hear more about becoming a partner in the initiative, please email adrian@potatostorageinsight.com or call Adrian on 07970 072260. We have some great offers on stand space for the project open day to tempt you with and speaker slots at a range of events for signed-up partners. More below.
During the past month, we have also been to look at some low-cost energy monitoring systems which are in extensive use on a farm running multiple enterprises in Herefordshire and neighbouring counties. This is a special interest area at the moment: it is crucial that more growers and store managers become more familiar with the technology that now exists to monitor consumption and costs on a store-by-store and even an item-by-item basis. Those growers who have already taken the plunge are learning a huge amount about the way their stores work and, combined with management of cost-saving devices such as inverters, are making extremely significant savings on their store running costs that can be the difference between making a margin or not.