No-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world
“I recently visited a state-of-the-art potato storage in western Manitoba, a very large building with all the bells and whistles,” writes Peter Alder, Appraiser at FFC in this technical article. “I could feel the excitement and pride shared by the owner of this large facility as it promises to deliver everything a pile of potatoes would ever need to make it through the storage season in great condition and deliver a great quality product just-in-time to the processing plant.”
Black Gold Farms is one of the U.S.’s large geographically diverse potato producers. Three years ago, the company decided to put Agremo’s AI based drone system for determining accurate plant stand counts to the test. Since 2020, the number of fields surveyed by drones and analyzed by Agremo’s image software has rapidly increased to now include 100% of Black Gold’s potato production acres.
Vanmark, an industrial potato and produce processing equipment manufacturer, announced today that it has added installation services to its offerings. This means that customers can now purchase Vanmark equipment with the option to have the company install it in their facilities. Installation services are offered through Vanmark’s sister company PFI.
When peeling vegetables, many processing lines waste huge amounts of food – and potential revenue. With modern peeling machines, however, this can be prevented, while also reducing energy costs and water consumption. Eamonn Cullen, Marketing Manager Peeling at TOMRA Food, explains how. Food losses can be as high as 30% during mechanical peeling and 20% with low-tech steam peelers – and much of this lost revenue is preventable, Cullen says.
Since 2016, the current generation of Dewulf’s 4-row Kwatro Xtreme has been known for, among other things, its constriction-free sieving path and having the largest bunker in its market segment. The harvester has, until now, been produced with a straight hedgehog unit, immediately followed by a single Flexyclean cleaning unit. This is changing today, as market demand for alternative cleaning options has proved to be high.
With input costs encroaching on farmers’ profit potential this year, precision application is a key opportunity to limit expenses and improve yields amidst drought conditions. Zach Hanner, trial manager at Rantizo, says there are several scenarios where farmers can lose yield and revenue during a drought. According to Hanner, producers should consider drone spraying to navigate these drought-related scenarios.
Elea is introducing its new PEF Advantage B1000-850 system for the processing of chips and fries, the company’s highest capacity belt system to date. According to Stefan Toepfl, Managing Director at Elea: “We have combined ten years of experience, process know-how and user feedback into the design, enabling our clients to process more for less.”
With the Puma 4.0, AVR introduced the world to a robust, high-tech 4-row self-propelled harvester. For the 2023 season, AVR is planning a major upgrade of the All Conditions Control (ACC) digging unit’s depth control mechanism. With fuel prices at an all-time high, AVR says the Puma’s fuel consumption is very low. The machine will be on display for the first time at Interpom 2022.
Industry professionals involved in the potato processing sector are invited to meet with the Pulsemaster team at this year’s Interpom event to discuss the company’s latest pulsed electric field (PEF) solutions, and its commitment to keep pace with emerging industry trends. “Our latest Pulsemaster PEF-systems are a must-see,” says Managing Director, Mark de Boevere.
Interpom 2022 is just around the corner, and equipment manufacturer Dewulf will display several of its innovative machines during the event from 27 to 29 November. This will be the first time Dewulf will bring the Miedema Structural 4000 Smart-Float to an in person trade fair. Several widely recognised favourites within the harvester range and planting and storage technology will also be heading to the international potato fair in Kortrijk.
The upcoming Interpom trade show in Belgium is regarded by many as the most specialised indoor trade fair for the potato sector in Europe where the whole chain is represented. It will be hosted on November 26 to 29 this year. Tolsma-Grisnich is happy to announce that it will be showcasing its product offerings at this event. Along with an independent group of specialists from Interpom, the company will showcase a number of ‘must-see’ innovations that will be featured at the fair throughout the event.
For over 25 years, 1,4GROUP Inc. has dedicated itself to providing value-added customer solutions in potato storage quality management, innovative application techniques and shelf-life extension through scientifically based product development. “1,4SIGHT is the only true dormancy enhancer on the market,” says 1,4GROUP’s Global Director of Research, Development and Innovation, Bernd Frings.
A third party conducted testing in 2021 on the skinning percentages of multiple varieties of potatoes with different equipment in the handling line prior to going into processing. Using two different branded pieces of handling equipment, Lockwood’s VACS Mobile is said to have outperformed its competitor by a large margin.
Elea will host its annual PEF Advantage Day at the company’s facilities in Quakenbrück, Germany on November 16 and 17. This year, the event will also be an occasion to celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary. Elea will also present the new belt system in its product range. The PEF Advantage B 1000-850 was developed for production runs of up to 90 t/h.
The UK’s leading manufacturer of vegetable handling solutions will reveal the latest innovation in mobile machinery at next month’s Interpom (27 – 29 November) – a Mobile Water Treatment System. Utilising Haith’s extensive knowledge of designing and installing water treatment systems at factories, the new Mobile Water Treatment System can be used on-farm at strategic locations or at production factories.
AVR’s newest Spirit 7200 recently joined the AVR Spirit family as a trailed, two-row offset potato harvester. New for this machine is that it can now optionally be equipped with the new ‘Clean & Go’ bunker. The new Clean & Go bunker provides additional cleaning by means of a cleaning roller mounted between the bunker floor and the elevator. Nonstop harvesting offers huge logistic advantages. With the Clean & Go bunker, AVR combines the best of 2 worlds.
Maya Sapir-Mir and Raya Liberman-Aloni, co-founders of the Israeli start-up PoLoPo, have developed a technology capable of producing egg protein (ovalbumin) in potatoes. PoLoPo believes that ovalbumin is ‘just the beginning’. “We also believe we have another product: a high-protein potato. Potato protein is highly commercial and has a lot of functionality, similar to ovalbumin.”
In the last six years, one of the UK’s leading potato growers has saved over £300,000 through an unconventional but highly effective use of Stocks AG’s Rotor Meter. In 2020 Stocks AG developed the i-CON system to control and maintain pre-set application rates and subsequently fitted it to The Jersey Royal Company’s machines. Further reductions in fertiliser use followed.
A community project that provides farmers with healthy potato seeds, cultivated using innovative laboratory techniques is significantly increasing yields in Kenya, an agricultural expert says. Kenya’s average potato yield per hectare is around ten tonnes but has the potential to increase to three times that amount with the use of disease-free seed, according to Anthony Kibe, principal investigator of a potato community action research project.
Leading vegetable handling equipment manufacturer Tong Engineering has announced its latest product development, which will see advanced optical sorting options available on all new models of its popular fieldloader machine, the FieldLoad PRO. Designed to allow growers to effectively clean and load crop in-field and on-farm, the FieldLoad PRO is one of the latest Tong machines on offer with fully-integrated camera sorting facilities.
Managing CO2 levels in potato stores is mainly done with large, energy-hungry fans. By not using your large fans, but instead using a small Restrain CO2 extractor, you can save one and a half hours of run time of the large fans every 24 hours, according to a news release issued by Restrain company. Furthermore, store managers can simply enter crop and storage information online and within 30 seconds the Restrain Energy Calculator will calculate how much can be saved monthly.
The biggest single improvement in harvesters in the past few decades is full hydraulic control, available only over the past handful of years. Engineers at Lockwood Mfg reflect in this article whether you should be considering making a switch to a fully hydraulic harvester. They say while hydraulic control might seem like an optional luxury today, the results it can easily produce may be a processor-mandated necessity tomorrow.
At the PotatoEurope event in Germany this week, the new SL 919 store loader with “Quantum” infeed conveyor will be demonstrated in practical use. The store loader is equipped with a 900 mm wide conveyor belt and a CCI 800 ISOBUS operator terminal. The SL series store loaders can be used for storing and loading potatoes, onions, red beet, celery and bulk goods.
The Bernard company specializes in the production of seed Potatoes for gardeners, market gardeners, and farmers. The TOMRA 3A optical sorter provides the company with the working power and accuracy to secure operations in the high season and has enabled it to increase its production capacity. The Bernard SME employs 35 people and is almost one hundred years old.
Newtec’s weighing, sorting and packing solutions offer reliability and efficiency of production for customers in the food industry. With its focus on establishing long-lasting trust with customers globally, Newtec helps companies optimise production through easy-to-use and durable weighing, sorting and packing equipment, minimising giveaway and turning produce into highly competitive end-products.
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