When I’m sharing a coffee or a beer with producers at events through December, January, February, we’re all full of plans for the season ahead.
Every single one of us is committed to being more proactive, more timely, more prepared. Yet… when the busyness of the season hits, ‘urgent’ often pushes out ‘important’. I get it. I do the same.
There is one ‘important’ that seems for many to push into ‘urgent’ come harvest season, but getting on it now offers big dividends: bin prep. If you haven’t already done it and now that the season is in full swing, make time for cleaning, assessing and prepping your empty bins to receive the crop come harvest. Admittedly, it’s a somewhat tedious, easy-to-put-off task. However, having it done comfortably in advance will proves incredibly critical once spuds are coming out of the ground.
Here’s the quick checklist: Do a walk-through to check for wear, moisture leaks, sharp edges, and breaks. Check and, if necessary, upgrade your vents. Calibrate sensors to ensure all are in working order. Double check electrical systems. Triple check humidification systems. ‘Summer clean’ and disinfect: it’s a whole lot easier to an intensive clean-out now compared to when you’d much rather be sitting in the harvester. As you get closer to harvest, precondition the storage and check humidification systems again – getting moisture into the space and then maintaining that humidity right from the beginning makes a huge difference to shippable yield and quality.
Here’s perhaps my biggest message: if you can’t find time, outsource. The cost of not prepping your bins well is many, many multiples of any investment you’ll make in bringing in someone to give you a hand. A generation ago, nearly everyone did their own taxes. Today, I can’t think of a single larger-scale farmer who doesn’t bring their annual financials to an accountant. Why? We all recognize the value of getting the job done right and on-time. Out-sourcing when you don’t have the expertise and/or you don’t have the time is good management, plain and simple.
One other piece that’s worth consideration in mid-summer is your post-harvest bin management plan. Optimizing a crop from the day the storage bin closes through the day it ships is about much more than sprout suppression. Using a modern storage product like 1,4SIGHT enhances dormancy, holds onto salable weight, helps maintain field-fresh quality, and even reduces the appearance of pressure bruise.
My final note: don’t wait. Harvest creeps up incredibly fast. The minutes of pre-planning and preparing will pay huge dividends. You’ll be thanking me come harvest.
