The belts on the bin filler serve many different functions. The rubber finger rollers knock dirt and debris off the potatoes. Any small rocks, bits of dirt or tiny potatoes drop through the sizing screen onto the garbage conveyor. The bigger rocks and clumps of weeds are picked out by hand by our staff. Human eyes can differentiate many things the machines miss, which means our staff is essential at this point of the harvest.
By the time the potatoes have run through all the belts they have been sorted in two different grading areas by our staff and have run through two different machine grades on the bin filler. This means we are only using our storage buildings to store potatoes, not unwanted field residue.
The potatoes are deposited into separate sections of the building based on variety. They are separated by floor to ceiling walls. The building is temperature and humidity controlled to create optimum conditions for keeping our crop in premium condition over the winter.
Now we just sit back and relax all winter….but not really!
If you would like to see a video of the bin filler, you can visit the installment of The Common-Tater called “The Potato Bin Filler.”