Know potato DM
Know potato DM
POTATO growers planning to supply processors have been warned to ensure tuber dry matter contents match the minimum required for processing before desiccation.
Such checks are particularly important where areas of the same field were planted on different dates, advises the Potato Processors Association. The crop in each part of the field must be considered separately with different desiccation, harvest date and storage conditions.
Failure to do so could mean intake problems.
"It is essential that the crops in these fields are treated as entirely separate crops and not combined into one and harvested and stored under the same conditions, particularly in bulk stores. Combining these crops will inevitably lead to problems with variable physiological age, dormancy period, tuber dry matter and sugar content. This will result in a range of tuber quality which might be unacceptable to the processor," says a PPA spokesman.