FoodTrust - Connections

I wrote about our creamer trials a few weeks ago (Potatoes Get Creamed). At that time we only had a few samples dug by hand out of the field. They were all harvested this past Monday. William, our crop specialist, mentioned it in the morning and I asked him to give me a call when they started.

I arrived at the field about 11:00. The weather was perfect!

Here they are in the field with the single row digger. The potato plants themselves are dead – you can see the rows of grey potato tops. William explained that each row is a different variety of potato. Several rows of each variety are planted randomly throughout the field. This is done to avoid any odd results due to variances in fertility over the field.

Here are a couple shots of the digger itself. The photo on the left shows the soil and potato plants being lifted out of the ground. The photo on the right shows the potato plants, tops and all ascending to the grading level. They are hard to see, being in the shade, but they are just behind (left of) the yellow tarp.

After the tops are removed the potatoes roll out onto a grading belt. This is the first of many grading lines most potatoes travel over. This is the point where rocks, tops, and other debris are separated from the potatoes.

From the ground up (left above) and watching the line – William and Paul keep an eye on the grading line.

Anything that makes it past the graders goes into bags. Ambrose mans the bagging end of things. The potatoes dug from each row are bagged separately so William can later determine the yield from each row.

While all that was happening, Harvey was in the field behind the digger picking up stray potatoes.

I didn’t get his picture, but Walter drove the tractor. Paul, Ambrose, and Walter work for Agriculture Canada, who assisted us with our creamer trials.

How’s the back Harvey?

Scott