CHERRY HILL COOLSTORES & TASMANIAN SEED POTATOES
SPRING 2022
In our September newsletter, Edition 34, we’d like to share with you our season report, more R&R time for Darryl & Rodney Saltmarsh, getting ready for the next season and an overview of JACS Engineering services for the agricultural industry.
Read on for these stories and more…
IN THIS ISSUE
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| Carrot Washing | 25 Tonnes of Commercials saved | R&R Time for Daryl and Rodney Saltmarsh | JACS Agricultural Industry Services |
SEASON REPORT
Pictured left to right: Andrew Vandenberg, Wayne Maxwell, Andrew Langmaid, Iris Bacosa, Pam Langmaid, Justin Johnson and Conor O’Doherty.
It has been a tough year so far for storage, with virtually every line of seed showing signs of soft rot at present – soft rot is attributed to the wet ground conditions we’ve had throughout the growing season. We are confident that for most seed lines we can minimise the damage and present seed for planting in good condition. Wayne has done a fantastic job of managing the storage of everyone’s seed.
We currently have over 13,000 tonnes of seed potatoes in storage and over 9,000 tonnes of carrots have been processed between April to August.
We’ve pre-cut approximately half of the seed that we have in cool storage, and the planting season is approaching fast. If anyone is in need of seed, please get in contact with Conor.
Best wishes from all of us at Cherry Hill Coolstores and Tasmanian Seed Potatoes.
CARROT WASHING
Now in full swing, we’re already halfway through the carrot season and everything is going well. We’re continually making improvements and analysing methods so that we can improve our procedures for a seamless operation.
Currently, we’re working on traffic management and efforts to provide better accessibility for customers, and make improvements in OH&S and communication, to provide a clean and safe working environment for our staff and contractors.
Pictured: carrots on the new washing line.
HOW CARROT PROCESSES IMPROVED POTATO CONDITIONS
Who’d have thought that the bulk unloading and washing of carrots, would open up opportunities for the improvements in the processing of potatoes! Our new bulk unloading and washing equipment, recently enabled a large-scale rescue for what would have otherwise have been large-scale loss for one client. We’re delighted to see a crossover in our improvement of processes, and that we were able to minimise storage losses on a large scale.
Pictured: a wet season brought us these commercial potatoes – how things looked prior to washing.
Pictured: washed commercial potatoes with 25 tonnes saved.
“Out of 30 tonnes of commercial potatoes, we were able to recover 25 tonnes – now that makes for a chipper of a day!”
Andrew Langmaid
TASMANIAN SEED POTATOES
We are busy getting ready for the next season. Currently potato growers are in price negotiations with McCain Foods. As soon as that is settled we can get to contracting and confirm tonnage targets for everyone.
We certainly hope the upcoming season will be an easier one for our growers.
Andrew Vandenberg
Pictured: Rodney Saltmarsh, Andrew Langmaid and Darryl Saltmarsh.
MORE R&R TIME FOR DARYL & RODNEY SALTMARSH
The Saltmarsh boys are calling it a day, after 37 years of growing potatoes. They’ve been with Cherry Hill Coolstores for as long as they (and anyone) can remember, mostly growing commercial crops for Simplot, eight years of growing commercial and seed crops for McCain.
They were Simplot’s youngest growers when they first started, and remember harvesting from the paddock into buckets, then into half tonne bins, and finally into trucks for transport. Their capacity (always in the Castra area) started at 100 tonne and very quickly grew to 300 and then 500 tonne – ultimately finishing at 4,000 tonne.
They leased land initially and then farmed on their own land, and always did the right thing by the land – growing alternative crops such as peas in the rotation. In fact, they had such a stellar reputation in the industry for looking after everything including their own equipment, that when they announced their retirement and started to advertise their machinery, it was snapped up in a couple of weeks. This especially surprised Darryl, wondering whether anyone would want a second hand harvester, but he sold one to Ballarat!
Darryl generally has looked after the potato side of the family business, and Rodney the dairy farm and cattle. They would start the day at 4am and sometimes finished at 1-2am the following day.
They’d been thinking of retiring from growing potatoes for many years and vowed to never work until they dropped – which they’d witnessed other family members doing. Instead, they will now have more time to spend with their families. Apart from Good Friday (and Christmas Day), Rodney has not had a single Easter off in his life!
Rodney will continue to look after 250 breeding cows and Darryl has a few farm jobs planned. Rodney looks forward to spending more time with his wife, Karen, and their two teenage daughters – neither of whom have any interest in agriculture or any kind of farming. Rodney noted his wife has been an incredible support “she does anything and everything to help, she’s absolutely wonderful…except for tractor work, no tractors”.
Darryl will be spending more time with his two teenagers and with his wife Karen (yes, they both married Karen’s), and noted ‘his Karen’ has been a huge help over the years too, doing all the bookwork and running that side of the business, “she runs all that” so he has never had to.
Rodney and Darryl, we wish you the happiest of retirements and look forward to seeing you at future events, such as our seed tours.
Best wishes from all of us at Cherry Hill Coolstores.
Pam and Andrew Langmaid
INTRODUCING: TOM GUINAN
Tom joined Cherry Hill Coolstores in September 2021 and is 2IC of the Carrot Division. He has a background in farming and is a welder and fitter. Known as a jack of all trades, he is a perfect addition to the helpful team at Cherry Hill Coolstores.
A typical day at Cherry Hill Coolstores for Tom involves ‘anything and everything’! This could be unloading trucks, driving a forklift, putting big bins on the wash line, removing empty bins and loading the Cherry Hill Coolstores truck. Tom also assisted Matt Febey (Carrots Division – Manager), Dobson’s Vegetable Machinery and JACS Engineering, to assemble the new carrot wash line to get it up and running for the start of this year’s carrot season.
“We are a good team, we all do everything and rotate jobs throughout the day”, says Tom.
Tom grew up in Railton and now lives just out of Latrobe with his partner on a 3-4 acre property, where they enjoy riding horses, hunting and fishing – especially trout fishing. His 4-year-old daughter loves horses too and already has her own pony, what a dream lifestyle!
Pictured: Tom Guinan.
JACS ENGINEERING
Our capabilities for the agricultural industry, include the following services:
FARM SERVICES
Potato trailer bin repairs, stock yard repairs, stock trailer repairs, fence fabrication and agricultural machinery maintenance/
INDUSTRIAL SERVICES
Welding, machining, structural steel and fabrication.
For bookings or enquiries please contact Justin Johnson on 0498 780 553 orjustin@jacseng.com.au
Justin Johnson
Pictured: Wayne contemplating international travel, now that holidays abroad are possible.
CHERRY HILL COOLSTORES SEED GUARANTEE
Our Seed Management Services. 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. rot), and refers to seed which is delivered directly to Cherry Hill Coolstores from the seed paddock for chemical application, coolstoring and cutting. In order for this guarantee to be valid, the Buyer must make claims within 24-hours of the seed leaving Cherry Hill Coolstores and 
before planting.
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.
View more about our guarantee here.
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GALLERY ADDITIONS
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WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
P : (03) 6426 1590
F : (03) 6426 2464
E : admin@cherryhillcoolstores.
Visit our website www.cherryhill.net.au