Roberts Day at Scottsdale a success (Edition 12)

FAREWELL WINTER HELLO SPRING!

What a beautiful cold, snowy patch we have just experienced but good news… the cold temperatures will have helped sterilize our soil and wipe out a few bugs that give us grief in the growing season. A cold winter does have an upside.

In this edition you can look forward to some fresh ideas from Kevin on seed line selection and we have some tips on handling cut seed and suggestions on planting per acre. You can also meet two more of our wonderful staff from the cutting shed. We introduce Leanne Jackson and Sue Meares.

For these stories and more read on.

Enjoy the fresh air and feeling of a new ‘spring’ in your step, Andrew and the team at Cherry Hill Coolstores

IN THIS ISSUE


Season Report	A Slice of Life with us at CHC	Story time with Kevin	Handling Cut Seed & Planting

Read on for these great articles and much more…

ROBERTS DAY AT SCOTTSDALE

Congratulations to Stuart Millwood on a great Roberts Day at Scottsdale.

It is fantastic to see these events well attended.

Promoted at the event was a new (not registered in Australia yet) infurrow seed treatment called EMESTO PRIME. EMESTO PRIME is an alternative to Amistar. Emesto is a group 7 fungicide which is different to Amistar (group 11). Using a different group fungicide to the normal can be very beneficial as pathogens become resistant to the continued use of one chemical.

Emesto Silver is another similar product (also not registered in Australia yet) that would be applied to cut seed pieces at the time of cutting as an alternative to Mancozeb, to help protect against seed piece breakdown.

If you would like more information on EMESTO PRIME or other seed treatments, call me or the team on (03) 6426 1590 or email me at andrew@cherryhillcoolstores.net.au.

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.

A SLICE OF LIFE AT CHERRY HILL – INTRODUCING THE CUTTING TEAM

We chatted to a few of more of our wonderful ‘girls’ from the cutting shed. A quick insight into their day and their lives outside of work here at the Cherry Hill Coolstores:

Leanne Jackson

Leanne has been a Seed/Potato Cutter with us at Cherry Hill, for 6 and a half years now.

Her daily routine involves moving between all stages of the cutting room. The first stage of grading and cutting, the second stage check and finally the third stage commonly referred to as “last look” where the seed has its last size check.

Having always been interested in horticulture (Leanne worked at a nursery in Devonport before coming to us) Leanne enjoys gardening at home and spending time with her beloved animals, moggies Tige and Milly and Rusty the dog. Leanne has also recently started selling Mary Kay as a hobby so if you need anything for your vanity you all know who to call… maybe some nice hand cream for all you hard workers out there!

Sue Meares

We’ve had the pleasure of Sue turning up to our sheds for 17 years now. Sue came to us after moving to Port Sorell with her partner “Mitch” who also works here!*

You can find Sue on the cutting lines and managing the quality control alongside Beth and Scott. Sue helps Beth supervises the girls on the cutter and monitors the trimming, checking the weight of all our potatoes.

Outside of work Sue likes to relax, walking their dog Poppy and enjoys having a beer! For those of you who read Mitch’s story in our Edition 8 newsletter you’ll remember these guys are keen car enthusiasts having a number of precious vehicles in the garage. Sue adores cars and loves being chauffeured around in them to the many car shows they attend. Asked if they have added to their car collection since we last chatted to Mitch, Sue replied with a cheeky smile “no” ….. “nothing yet!”. Sounds like we should stay tuned for what Santa may bring this year.

* We featured Mitch in Edition 8 of our newsletter – you can view this here.

The girls are well and truly settled into our new cutting shed! Visit the gallery for recent images of the new cutter and the girls at work in our great new facility.

TESTIMONIAL … “PEOPLE WE TRUST”

“…with people we trust – that’s why we deal with them.”

Glen Carr – largest grower of potatoes for McCain in Tasmania, Australia

View more of our testimonials here.

HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR SEED LINE SELECTION?

Many growers ask which seed line do we think is best for them to choose. We show them the lines available and they can choose the line they like. Most lines have good and not so good features.

It must be remembered that different varieties respond in a different way to various handling procedures, so let’s focus on the Russet Burbank variety.

This variety must not receive procedures, which cause the seed to age, because it will then set more tubers and the grower will have difficulty getting his crop to make size. Stem numbers are important with this variety and two to three is best.

Factors which have an influence on your yield are disease and general health, nutrition, paddock selection, the seed line, seed storage, seed cutting, seed planting and irrigation just to name a few.

My opinion would be to select a generation 3 lines of seed (if I could get it) with no visual signs of any disease. A size range of 50 grams to no more than 280 grams and having a nice long to oval shape. I would like them to be harvested in March or April and to be pre cut in late April or May.

They would then be well dried and cured and stored in the cool store at 3 degrees. When they were cut I would need my seed to be not lower that the ambient temperature and ideally 11 – 15 degrees.

Remember any handling procedures carried out on your seed are potentially stressful and may age your seed to some degree. However, with modern procedures and well-maintained machinery operated professionally, this should keep stress to a minimum and tubers should recover quickly from this procedure.

Of course there are many factors, which can influence your yield and quality. Your seed plays a crucial role in that outcome so there are many decisions made which are very important to help increase your bottom line.

Andrew and Brenden’s new cutting and handling facility was designed with all these and many other factors in mind. It will help to carry out seed procedures in a less stressful manner – remember happy seed means better quality and better yield for your crop.

Whilst it is good to get all the visual aspects of your seed right there is always the hidden unknown possibilities of ‘nasties’, which may be present. These could emerge later on. A lot of these pathogens can depend on seed paddock selection and knowing what the seed grower has to watch out for.

Yes, your seed is very important and plays a huge role in the success of the crop.

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

CUT SEED AND PLANTING TIPS

Handling Cut Seed

Care in handling cut potato seed is perhaps the most underrated aspect of commercial potato production. Cut potato seed is much more easily bruised than whole potatoes of similar weights. The most vulnerable areas of the seed pieces are the edges of the cut surfaces. Very small impacts can damage cells on the edges of the cut seed. These damaged areas allow decay organisms present on the seed or in the soil to infect the seed piece. Damaged cells may not heal. Seed-tuber and seed piece bruise is beginning to be recognized for its importance. Bruise problems are more severe (both before and after cutting) with larger seed tuber sizes. As seed tuber size increases, there are more cut surfaces, more right angle cuts  and greater cut surface areas per seed piece. The number of cut surfaces on the seed piece affects the rate of emergence, the rate of early growth, stem numbers, set, grade and final yield. The more cut surface area on the seed piece, the greater the seed decay potential, the slower the emergence, the more stored energy in the seed that is dedicated to wound healing and suberization and, therefore, the less that is left to support new plant growth.

Planting Quantity per Acre

The quantity of seed required per acre depends  on the average seed piece size and the seed piece spacing. Larger seed has been shown to produce bigger yields in some varieties. Keep in mind,  however, that many other factors besides seed piece size and physiological age of the seed piece determine the final yield. These include soil  temperature at planting, accuracy of the planter,  soil moisture, fertility and diseases.

Article courtesy of University of Maine – Bulletin #2412.

WE’VE SPRUNG INTO THE NEW CUTTING SHED

The team is in the new dry/cutting shed! These new facilities are already showing benefits valuable to our procedures and ultimately your product.

For more images from Cherry Hill (particularly more of the shed in action) visit our online gallery here…

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Please note that some months ago we changed banks to the ANZ (a few customers have still been using our old details so please update your records as we now have new banking details).

Please note these are now:
BSB 017 536 Account no. 3972 26402

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