No-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world
In the June issue of his monthly Synopsis bulletin, storage specialist Adrian Cunnington reports on the recent World Potato Congress event in Dublin, including the technical tour to O’Shea Farms. The bulletin further includes a link to his presentation on post-CIPC solutions at the WPC conference session on storage, which also featured talks by Nora Olsen, Kurt Demeulemeester and Derek Ralston.
In the second of two articles, potato storage specialist Adrian Cunnington of Potato Storage Insight (PSI) homes in on how to compile an accurate cost estimate. Ultimately all of those things are dependent on the basic cost of running a storage set-up, Adrian says, and it is important to have a really good grasp of what those costs are. “There is perhaps no time in the history of modern potato storage as we know it when costs have been so pressurised,” he says.
From May 30 to June 2, Restrain will be exhibiting at the World Potato Congress 2022 (WPC) in Dublin, Ireland. Restrain’s expert team is ready to answer all your questions and show you the solutions that are our contribution to the changing world of the potato. Visit them at stand 57. Restrain is known for their CO2 extractor and their residue-free ethylene anti-sprouting system.
In a recently published article, specialists at Dutch based Ellips grading technology company, Erwin Bakker (CEO) and John Albert (GM Ellips USA) discuss in detail how advanced equipment and technology can help potato companies to overcome five of the most common challenges associated with efficient sorting and grading.
Potato storage is one of the backbones of Idaho’s iconic spud industry. After being harvested, more than 80 percent of the state’s potato crop is stored until it’s needed by processors and other customers. Efforts by University of Idaho researchers to improve potato storage technology got a boost recently thanks to a $1 million investment to create an endowed research professorship.
It’s now six years since Farm Electronics became a subsidiary of the Dutch Tolsma Grisnich Group. Following on from a re-branding exercise by Tolsma Grisnich earlier this year, Farm Electronics have followed suit to improve the synergy within the companies and to give the customer a clearer understanding of what Farm Electronics can offer.
“Always at the forefront of technology, our latest innovation SmartSola has been launched giving our customers full control of the solar energy they produce,” according to Ray Andrews, Managing Director of Crop Systems Ltd in the UK. SmartSola™ is a new software program that looks at the power needed to run a store and, if that power is available from a renewable source, like solar or wind, utilises that power in preference to it being exported to the grid.
Potato stores require large amounts of energy, so is solar PV an attractive investment? Stephen Robb investigated for Irish Farmers Journal. Robb looks at two example potato farms with cold stores, storage sheds, processing/sorting facilities and packing facilities and analyses how installed solar PV systems impact on their overall operation and cost to maintain and operate.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) says in its weekly potato market report that growers storing potatoes are incurring huge increased costs due to soaring energy bills. The 2022/23 planted area in North West Europe could be the lowest for some time and this is a contributing factor to the pricing confidence levels going forward, according to IFA.
The skyrocketing energy prices in 2022 are a huge challenge for potato growers. After all, ensuring good storage conditions in storage areas with the aid of fans and cooling installations costs a lot of electricity. As a result, the margins of growers are under considerable pressure. What can you do to save energy, Restrain asks a recent blog post.
This article is by Adrian Cunnington of Potato Storage Insight. The rapidly-changing situation with storage costs requires every manager to devote some time with a highly critical eye to the matter of cost control – more so than ever before. So how can you arrive at an accurate cost for operating a store?
Agri-food software developer KisanHub has launched a digital Store Monitoring tool to complement its extensive range of tools for collecting supply chain data. This Store Monitoring tool is the first in-app tool dedicated to monitoring crops in-store, KisanHub says in a news release. This new tool enables a user and their controlled network to stay informed of the condition of all their crops in store, at any given time or place by accessing the simple KisanHub platform.
A report titled “Potato Stores in the UK” was released yesterday, presenting information on all aspects of pesticide usage during storage of potatoes harvested in 2020 and stored during 2020/2021. Data were collected by the Pesticide Usage Survey Teams at Fera Science Ltd, the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute of Northern Ireland.
Canadian based MustGrow Biologics Corp. is pleased to announce successful postharvest trials in both disease control and sprout suppression of stored potatoes conducted by a third-party independent laboratory. The company says no combination solutions currently exist that treat both disease and sprouting – making MustGrow’s application unique in addressing both postharvest issues in potatoes simultaneously.
Tong is pleased to announce its first new product development for 2022 with the launch of the new edition JetFill big bag filler. “The JetFill has always been a popular machine in our home and export markets,” says Charlie Rich, Sales Director at Tong Engineering.
Potato growers in the U.S. facing post-harvest diseases now have a new option for protection during storage. Archive fungicide from Syngenta preserves potato quality in post-harvest. “Archive is a powerful pre-mix fungicide that will help growers combat the major storage pathogens that threaten their crop,” says Heather Ambuehl, post-harvest lead at Syngenta. “This post-harvest tool is one growers can incorporate into their decay management strategy.”
Juno (Plant Protection) Ltd is delighted to announce that Adrian Cunnington, widely respected former head of the Sutton Bridge potato storage research facility, has agreed to work with Juno to support growers, store-keepers, agronomists and foggers in delivering optimum efficacy from the use of Biox-M. Biox-M is 100% spearmint oil, approved for use as a potato sprout suppressant.
Today, Decco U.S. Post-Harvest, Inc. the post-harvest affiliate of UPL Limited, announces the launch of Decco DMN Aerosol at the 2022 Potato Expo in Anaheim. Decco adds the new EPA-registered product to its growing potato storage portfolio available across North America.
Potato Storage Insight (PSI) in the UK will be running a two-day, residential Potato Store Managers’ Course on 15/16 March 2022 at Retford, Nottinghamshire. “This is a participative course for growers and store managers who are involved in the day-to-day management of potato stores,” says PSI Director, Adrian Cunnington. “The course follows a format that’s tried and tested by the tutors and will include talks, group discussions and practical interactive sessions, focusing on all aspects of potato storage.”
Emergency potato storage on the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone saved the day for some local farmers and could lead to a beneficial ripple effect to Aroostook County’s premier industry. As Paula Brewer reports for Bangor Daily News, the story is one of the COVID-19 era’s bright points.
A fourth-generation potato farming and marketing family in North Dakota is leaping into a new era of electronic potato grading. The Hall family partnership of Hoople in northeast North Dakota put in place a multi-million-dollar optical grading system that uses cameras to evaluate potatoes individually and sort them into lanes. The Halls’ Spectrim can sort up to 1,700 potatoes a minute or around 120,000 per hour.
After the closure of the world-renowned Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research facility last week, following the loss of the potato levy ballot in March and subsequent announcement of AHDB Potatoes’ demise in September, former head of site Adrian Cunnington has moved swiftly to plug the advisory gap for the potato storage industry. Adrian has set up Potato Storage Insight Ltd (PSI), an independent advisory and support service for the potato storage sector.
With an innovation award under its belt and an esteemed new technical expert on the payroll, sprout inhibition developer Restrain was one of the most talked about participants at the 2021 British Potato Industry Event in Harrogate. Once every two years the whole of the potato industry comes together for the British Potato Industry Event for networking and discussing business opportunities. This year, a lot of the buzz was about sprout inhibition developer Restrain.
Speaking at BP2021, Eric Anderson, of Scottish Agronomy, warned growers in the Scottish seed potato sector about the challenges presented in 2021 – emphasising that minimising the handling and damage of the seed in grading pre-treatment is always important.
Two key members of the Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research team chose British Potato 2021 show to announce their new ventures in the wake of AHDB Potatoes disbanding. As Potato Review magazine reports, specialist in potato store management, Adrian Cunnington, has started his own consultancy entitled Potato Storage Insight Ltd (PSI). Crop Storage senior scientist Adrian Briddon has taken on a new role with Restrain as its Technical Manager, which officially starts on January 10th.
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