Potato Review

www.potatoreview.com POTATO REVIEW MARCH/APRIL 2023 13 GROWER INSIGHT e brothers consulted various friends and neighbours who were in the potato industry and gathered a lot of information about potato storage methods and layouts before approaching a number of di erent storage equipment companies and local builders to get an idea of what could be utilised from the current building or whether it needed to be demolished so they could start over. Alastair said: “As you can imagine, building costs between the start of the project in late 2020 and mid 2021 had increased by nearly 40% and looking at the storage layouts, we couldn’t really see any good reason to knock down the current building and start over for this sort of money, therefore we decided to stick with the current building framework and re-clad it with 120mm insulated panel for the walls and roof. “We wanted to go with 120mm as there wasn’t that much di erence in cost between the thicknesses andwe saw it to be a good investment. “We wanted to do as much work ourselves as possible to keep costs down, right from digging out the centre raised oor for the air duct to tting the ventilation hatches and making the timber duct and staircase! at way we could get it just the way we wanted.” After looking at di erent ways in which the current building could be ultilised, either with box storage or bulk storage, using equipment manufacturers, the brothers settled on an ambient bulk storage design from Farm Electronics using multiple small EC ventilation fans tted directly at the end of an above oor air duct so that they didn’t have to disturb the existing concrete oor. “ is set-up, together with the automated, insulated inlet, recirculation and outlet hatches ts in perfectly with our current building size and means we can store up to 1,300 tonnes of potatoes per zone,” Alastair said. “We also chose to have roof heater circulation fans to reduce the likelihood of any condensation forming on top of the crop and CO sensors, refreshment fans and a valve to control the CO build-up within the store. Along with the temperature and relative humidity sensors, we can control the equipment from the 15” touchscreen Vision Controller. “As the project was nearing completion in September, we were let down by a local electrician that we had lined up to carry out the electrical installation. As we were ready to store within the next seven days, time was very much against us. However the support from Farm Electronics exceeded our expectations as they attended the site the very next day after explaining our situation and they didn’t leave until everything was working correctly.” As potato storage is new to James and Alastair, they decided to work with one of the local merchants who the majority of the crop will be going to. It made perfect sense to get Mercian involved with the store management as the company has a dedicated store manager who can keep an eye on things from the app on his phone, checking the conditions and what the equipment is doing and altering the setting remotely when needed. is can also be accessed by the manufacturer to help with any setting or explain any functions. “It makes it so much easier when they can see what I’m seeing,” said James. “We have had a lot of complements on the store from the customers we are supplying. e crop is looking great in there. We have had the rst application of DMN and, compared to other stores local to us, we are looking like we are needing to run around 30% less ventilation hours. Along with the fans being EC motors (variable speed), it means we are looking at a signi cant reduction in energy costs which obviously is a major bonus. James added: “We are currently storing Arsenal and Torrus for Mercian and Lamb Weston but we want to start to look at other varieties which are more susceptible to problems at higher temperatures therefore we do plan to add refrigeration into the stores in the future, using lowGWP propane refrigerant together with glycol and roof mounting cooler units.” JAMES and Alastair took over the family farm in 2010. One of their rst decisions was to expand the potato business and they are now looking to increase tonnages. Over the past few years, they had grown 410 acres of potatoes but are looking to increase it slightly this year. Prior to 2021, the brothers grew 150ha of potatoes spread over a number of elds eight miles from the home farm. With a large proportion of rented land, the soils are mixed. Between 60% and 85% of the crop is irrigated, using trickle and rain gun methods. ey use METOS stations and probes. Alastair represents the West Midlands on the NFU’s Potato Forum. Early 2021 when the building was still used for pigs before the brothers changed to potato growing. Work in progress during July last year shows the insulated panel being installed. Finished duct showing recirculation hatches and EC Fans