Advances in optical grading increase potato sorting efficiencies

Potato farmers are seeking avenues to increase productivity, lower costs and comply with environmental regulations.

“We’ve tried to pull together the equipment to go right from planting, fertilizer, spraying, irrigation, harvesting, storing,” said Dan Mann, vice-president of HJV Engineering. “And then coming out of storage, washing, packing and right to the end user.”

Why it matters: Several new equipment innovations and potato varieties were on display at the recent Ontario Potato Field day.

HJV added 20,000 square feet to its facility, which has been in production for more than six years. 

“We’ve got systems installed all over North America; our specialty is root crop equipment,” said Dave Vander Zaag, HJV Equipment president. “There’s everything from tilt belts, washers, bins, conveyors, screens, graders – anything needed for washing and sorting potatoes or other vegetables.”

He said the expansion allowed production to ramp up to meet demand, which has increased over the last two years. 

The Ontario Potato Field Day, hosted by HJV on Aug. 18, was an opportunity to showcase new machinery and seed varieties and reconnect with growers and suppliers, said Vander Zaag.

“The ag community is so small, and the vegetable business and the potato business we’re in – it’s a really small, tight-knit community,” he said. “So, it’s great to get everybody together. It’s great. Eugenia Banks deserves a lot of credit for organizing this. She is part of what knits the whole community together.”

HJV Engineering’s washing, drying and electronic sorting system is designed to increase grading accuracy, limit crop loss and reduce labour costs.

“What’s important in chip stock right now is foreign debris,” said Mann. “If one of the big chip manufacturers gets a golf ball or a walnut and it gets through to the fryer, then you have to change all the oil in the fryer.”

The cost to cover downtime, lost product and replacement oil is high, said Mann, and if unnoticed, the contamination could trigger a product recall.

“(Golf balls) will follow a potato exactly, they’ll sink but not in moving water, and they don’t float,” he said. “We can’t sink them out in the destoner, and we can’t pull them out in the floating debris, so you need electronic grading.”

One of HJV’s hottest offerings is the submerged barrel washer, which easily separates stones and floating debris while cleaning the product to a high degree. 

“Optical graders don’t work well with the traditional old-style washers used before,” said Vander Zaag. “Submerge barrels are very gentle on the product and do a good job recycling the water.”

The washer uses 75 per cent less water, which makes it easier for potato growers to comply with regulations around discharging wastewater, said Mann.

“In some testing, we’ve done 100 loads on the same water; it is very simple.”

Heavy sediments are pulled out and returned to the field, while treated water cleans the final sediment, requiring fewer resources. 

“As you get the system running, it takes less resources to clean because it’s continually making this loop,” said Mann. 

Electronic sorting is quickly becoming the industry standard to deal with debris, said Mann, and requires a higher level of washing and drying than older equipment. 

The HJV system, when used together, can reduce labour needed at the sorter and increase accuracy.  

“That’s a huge payback,” said Mann. “And the payback happens fast when you start doing volumes.”

The process has successfully captured marginal potatoes overlooked for processing because of the system’s cleaning capabilities. 

HJV recently provided an extensive stainless-steel system for a customer with a three-year ROI, primarily provided through the vision grading’s accuracy.

The customer was losing approximately eight per cent of the crop at the grading station, with 40 per cent of that volume being potentially good products that ended as cattle feed, said Mann. 

“On a big farm, that’s a lot of potatoes. If we do the washing, drying and sorting properly, we can get 95 per cent accuracy.”

The Grimme Veritron four-row self-propelled European-style harvester also garnered significant attention at the potato field day. 

Fitted with tracks for high flotation, it’s designed for areas where peat moss-black soil makes travel conditions difficult. The Veritron and a Grimme receiving hopper are going to a Northern Ontario specialty seed grower.

“Another feature it has is a holding bunker. Because of the difficulties with moving vehicles in the field, it can hold the product in the machine,” said Mann. “We can get from end to end and unload the product on the ends of the field.” 

Minimizing the soil’s exposure to heavy vehicle traffic allows producers to maintain soil quality and reduce the risk of machinery getting bogged down.

The hopper is a cleaning and fractioning system, able to be fed by a live bottom or dump trunk, and the feeder spreads the product into a single wide layer. 

“The product is spread wide, so then we go into a wide separator, wide fractioning,” said Mann. “And whenever you can keep your product as a single layer and wide, you get better cleaning separation.”