Introducing Pam Langmaid (Edition 4)

WELCOME AND SEASON REPORT

Spring is here and we are seeing the temperature starting to rise.  Some early potato growers are planning to plant in the first half  of September. Boy how fast the seasons roll around. At Cherry Hill  we began cutting seed in April and continued right through Winter.  This has given us the ability to deal with more tonnes in Spring  and throughout the planting season.

All the pre-cut seed in our coolstores appear to have stored extremely well at this stage …  but the job isn’t finished yet and we remain vigilant in monitoring our coolstores.

If you are unhappy with your current seed cutting service try the Cherry Hill system.  If your seed is at another coolstore we can arrange to have it transported to Cherry Hill for cutting.

We’d love to hear from you so give us a call! The Team at the Cherry Hill Coolstores

The Team at the Cherry Hill Coolstores

Pictured: Above left – our fabulous team, Brenden, Andrew and Pam (L-R). Above middle – Maria (one of our valuable members of our cutting team) is inspecting the potatoes before they are cut. This system (in most cases) saves the seed grower the cost of grading seed. And more importantly, this removes the extra handling of tubers. Above right – a box of fresh cut Russet Burbank seed on its way to the seed curing room.

CHERRY HIL COOLSTORES SEED GUARANTEE

Our Seed Management Service. Cherry Hill Coolstores will guarantee our services on Seed Growers seed. If you buy someone else’s certified seed, which is presented to Cherry Hill in good condition, and it breaks down, we will replace our cutting and services at no charge.

This guarantee specifically refers to seed piece breakdown, (i.e. rots) and refers to seed which is delivered directly to Cherry Hill from the Seed Paddock for coolstoring and cutting.

In order for this guarantee to be valid, the buyer must make claims with 24 hours of the seed leaving Cherry Hill and before planting.

TESTIMONIAL … “GOOD FRIENDLY SERVICE“

“Cherry Hill Coolstores cuts and cool stores our potatoes. We have been using them for approximately eight years. Over this time, we have found the quality of their potatoes to be good.

They always ask how we are going and are very friendly. They show us their product as they are growing which is helpful. From our perspective they are favourable against competitors. They provide a good, friendly service.”

Michael Cresswell – Owner, Quamby View

View more of our testimonials here.

A TIMELY REMINDER FROM BRENDEN

The time of the year has come when growers need to be actively thinking of their seed.

Firstly – is it cut? Are the tonnes allocated right? When will you be planting? When should you get your seed out?

Pre-cut seed should be taken out of coolstore to warm up prior to planting – one week for Mac1 and Ranger seed, 2-3 days for Russet Burbank – depending on weather conditions.

Uncut seed should come out of the coolstore for a minimum of 2-3 weeks before cutting. Cherry Hill Coolstores can assist you with any queries that you may have!

You can request your seed to come out of Coolstore by ringing Brenden on (03) 6426 1590 at the Cherry Hill Coolstores or emailing him at brenden@cherryhillcoolstores.net.au.

WE’D LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO PAM LANGMAID

Pam began her agricultural career at Simplot in north-west Tasmania, where she worked for 18-years prior to meeting Andrew. Pam left Simplot when little Kel was on his way, and she began working part-time at the Cherry Hill Coolstores soon after her maternity leave. Four years later dear little Jesse arrived and Pam gradually took on a full-time load in the office – perhaps even more hours than Andrew, today!

In the past, Pam has enjoyed playing softball, indoor cricket, netball. And today she enjoys reading, watching the kids play sport and spending time with Andrew.

Pam’s duties at Cherry Hill Coolstores include managing the front office (keeping Andrew and Brenden under control), invoicing and finances, as well as general administrative duties. Pam is also in charge of approving annual leave (mainly to ensure that Andrew and Brenden don’t go on too many fishing holidays)!

In the future, Pam is driving the changeover from MYOB accounting software to the new Xero Cloud Accounting solution. This will offer a great benefit for all Cherry Hill Coolstore clients, enabling accounts to be even clearer than ever before. By moving to a cloud solution, this also enables Pam to work remotely and streamline all internal accounting processes.

Things are getting very technically-savvy now at the Cherry Hill Coolstores!

COMPARISON OF TWO CUT SURFACES

The top cut shown here indicates rough cuts caused by blunt knives. This has the effect of tearing the potato cells rather than cutting them. The potato will be very juicy when cut, take much longer to dry and be of far greater risk of breakdown.

The lower potato pictured has a much smoother cut, as the potato cells have been sliced rather than torn. A smoother cut will have less juice, will suberize much faster and the risk of infection is greatly reduced.

AN OPINION … BY KEVIN LANGMAID

Continuing along the lines of the article I wrote in the previous newsletter in regards to the Growers Bottom Line and trying to reduce input costs.

Planting day is really important. You need well-cut blocky seed pieces placed in a loose seed bed at a depth of 150mm with at least 50mm of loose soil underneath the seed piece. Place the seed piece in a 32 inch or 34 inch row, with spacings at 150 to 300mm, depending of the variety or whether it is a seed or commercial crop. If it is a seed crop, you’d need a higher plant density than a commercial crop to keep the size down and the tuber number up. Flat top finished moulds aid in moisture retention and keep tubers under the soil.

DNA soil testing on your potential potato paddock is now, I believe, essential to carry out. This will indicate the levels of soil borne pathogens present in the soil. This information may tell you to put a chemical on, or save your money and don’t … i.e., Rhizotonia – is it present or not? Or you could change your paddock selection if the levels are too high. There is a bit of walking and time involved getting your soil samples, but it could save you a lot of expense and worry, and is well worthwhile.

A good seed bed is really important to help your harvester achieve a satisfactory result.
The seed crop needs to be delivered to the coolstore with no mechanical damage and
this can be difficult to achieve if the digging conditions are not reasonable.

Ensure the loads go straight to the coolstore after being dug, so that the chemical can be applied before any harmful spores enter the tuber through skin abrasions. Load left under tarps for a long period is really bad because if the spores do enter the tuber, they may not manifest themselves until later on in the storage, or worse still, at planting.

Let’s hope everyone has a successful year!

Kevin is now retired, however can regularly be found out at Cherry Hill. He lives in East Devonport and would describe himself as very happily retired with still a key interest in Cherry Hill. Andrew and Brenden regularly refer to Kevin for his advice and opinion.