CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Weight Watcher keeps tuber weight at the same level A t a stone’s throw from the factory location of Lamb Weston / Meijer, just across the railway track and on the other side of the dike towards the village of Yerseke, is the crop farm of Leen Jan Boot. In a large yard, immediately behind an enormous black-wooden shed, there’s also an ultramodern storehouse. In this storehouse, among other things, Boot has stored his potato harvest, which is wholly destined for the neighbours on the other side of the track. One of the varieties that he grows and stores in the storehouse, is the Markies, and he stores a total of 850 tons of potatoes in one of the mechanicallycooled units. On top of this big heap of beautiful, big tubers is a computer panel on a tripod, which you sometimes see among the control equipment for storehouses. It has a few control keys and a digital screen. Under the panel, between the three legs of the tripod, dangles a net bag of potatoes. From the panel a few flex cords run across the heap of potatoes towards the pressure chamber. This system has now been in Boot’s shed for several storage seasons. The first season mainly because of the further development of this storage aid by Lamb Weston / Meijer and the manufacturer of the Weight Watcher, Mooij Agro. Boot himself only started working seriously and intensively with the device, as he describes it, since the start of the current storage season. He does this together with a few other fellow-growers of the Markies variety in the south-western part of the Netherlands, who also have Weight Watcher in their storage units. Limiting the unnecessary loss of moisture As the name already suggests, Weight Watcher continuously monitors the weight of the potatoes in the net bag below the control panel. It contains roughly 15 kilograms of tubers, which Boot attached to the weighing apparatus immediately after placing in storage. From that moment, the computer measures the weight of the sample accurately to the nearest gram during the entire storage period. The purpose of the testing is to check accurately any loss of moisture from the potatoes and to limit the loss as much as possible. ‘A potato also breathes It’s important that growers learn from each other how they can limit their weight loss compared to others. during storage, so it also loses moisture. This is a well-known fact but, without measuring equipment, you can’t do much about it. But you can with Weight Watcher. The potatoes warm up by around 1 degree Celsius every week due to their breathing. You need to get that heat out of your pile in order to keep the storage temperature stable. For every few hours of ventilation you see that the sample below the Weight Watcher has lost one/tenth of a percent of weight’, Boot points out. ‘The trick is to limit the ventilation process as much as possible, but also to do this as cleverly as possible. For example, by choosing ventilation times when the outside air is not too dry, so that no unnecessary moisture is lost.’ According to the potato grower, the apparatus also contributes to creating awareness. ‘You’re not storing bricks, but a living product. For example, as Weight Watcher users, we’re able to see through the internet what happens in the storerooms of fellow-growers. I’m a member of a study group together with seven other growers of Markies, so we discuss the reasons for the differences. It can be the storage itself. Older storerooms are sometimes less well insulated which means they often need more ventilation hours. It can also be that there’s some rot in the potatoes, which means you also need to ventilate more. The saying that “good storage begins with cultivation” is clearly seen here’, Boot explains. Sjaak Aben sees the effect of Weight Watcher in the factory whereby delivering firmer tubers means fewer losses in the production process. One percent of weight saving ‘We’ve also seen very clearly this year the consequences of storing potatoes with a high tuber temperature. Growers who had harvested in very hot weather and had put tubers of 20 degrees Celsius or more into storage, had to cool back a great deal. This required extra ventilation hours, which resulted in quite a bit of moisture loss. As Dutch potato growers, we’re not yet used to the extreme temperatures and so we’re not yet coping adequately with the effects’, Boot observed. Naturally, it’s also important for the grower/storekeeper to check on what Weight Watcher really contributes financially. The price of the weighing machine, new, is around 2,000 euros. Boot figPotato World 2015 • number 2 39 Pagina 38
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