No. 8/22 SUBSCRIBER EDITION: please go to potatostorageinsight.com/subscribe to sign up
Welcome to Synopsis, Potato Storage Insight's monthly publication bringing you news, technical information and developments on potato storage issues.
The new storage season is underway with stores beginning to fill at a pace. Temperatures have been holding up at levels slightly higher than average which is not ideal for storing but, whilst here have been some exceptional deluges, the general harvesting conditions remain dry. Cooler nights are forecast which may help to get some heat out of the crop, but we will need to be vigilant, especially if crop conditions turn wetter as we progress through harvest.
Read more, including our top 20 energy-saving tips, in our storage notes for September below...
You can get full access to our bulletin Synopsis by following the subscriber links on the PSI website. One or two subscribers have had difficulty logging in - please remember you must go through the member login page. If you require a password reset, please send an email to adrian@potatostorageinsight.com.
Potato Storage Insight activity
It's been a relatively quiet month for PSI, with focus on pre-storage training, technical meetings and on-farm store assessments.
One of the assessments done this month was at R.H. Ward Ltd, based at Welton Cliff, near Lincoln. Farm manager Oliver Herring (pictured below) visited the PSI stand at the BP2021 event held at Harrogate back in November and was the winner of our prize draw for a complimentary pre-storage visit ahead of the new season.
R.H. Ward grows over 4000 tonnes of potatoes destined for storage for the pre-pack market, focusing on high quality skin finish from varieties such as Lanorma and Nectar. The company has invested in recent years in large-scale irrigation and upgraded, refrigerated storage to support the potato operation.
The first load for storage arrives from the field at R.H. Ward Ltd's yard earlier this month. Harvesting direct into boxes is standard practice on the farm to minimise the risk of damage.
Adrian Cunnington of PSI was also a speaker at a webinar organised by Taygrow, the Scottish grower group, earlier this month which tackled the subject of 'Energy saving tactics for potato storage'. Very relevant to this topic is work reported on the AHDB legacy website on an energy use optimisation study (R439) carried out at SBCSR and elsewhere back in 2013. Click here to access the full report (note: 119 pages).
Topical tips for September
As we head into a new storage season and loading progresses, it is important to spend time
doing some basic checks to try to avoid any surprises later on.