Organizing Data in Arable Farming: Towards an Ontology of Processing Potato

Arable farmers and their suppliers, consultants and procurers are increasingly dealing with gathering and processing of large amounts of data. Data sources are related to mandatory and voluntary registration (certification, tracing and tracking, quality control). Besides data collected for registration purposes, decision support systems for strategic, tactical and operational tasks yield enormous amounts of mainly digital information. Data of similar nature but with often varying definitions are collected and processed separately for different purposes. This paper describes for an important arable crop – the processing potato – which data requirements and flows exist at present and how they could possibly be described in a unifying ontology. An ontology describes the concepts, attributes and relations in a specific knowledge domain using a standardized representation language. Important concepts in this domain are for example crop, parcel, soil, treatment and farm. The ontology – once elaborated – will reduce the overlap between information models and helps to overcome the problem of data definition and representation. It is a key element for the development of systems that can automatically learn either with the help of expert knowledge or through adequate numerical techniques.     

玉米窄行穿林套种秋马铃薯品种和播期的选择

试验通过不同马铃薯品种与不同播期相结合,对海拔800 m和900 m"薯/玉/苕/薯"四熟制套作中秋马铃薯产量进行分析。结果表明:两点品种间差异均表现为‘费乌瑞它’>‘出土黄’>‘鄂薯5号’,即早熟品种为优选;最佳播期均为玉米蜡熟末期8月24日,但最差播期不同,海拔800 m处以玉米完熟期8月31日最差,而海拔900 m处以玉米乳熟期8月10日最差。结合各处理组合产量得到,海拔800 m处品种‘费乌瑞它’搭配播期玉米乳熟期8月10日、玉米蜡熟初期8月17日、玉米蜡熟末期8月24日均可获得高产;而海拔900 m则以品种‘费乌瑞它’搭配玉米蜡熟末期8月24日最利于产量建成。因此‘费乌瑞它’搭配玉米蜡熟末期8月24日处理组合在两点均可获得高产。     

Pomerelle Russet: an Early Maturing Potato Variety with High Yields of U.S. No. 1 Tubers Suitable for Fresh Market and mid-Storage Processing and Tolerance to Potato Mop-top Virus

Pomerelle Russet is an early maturing fresh potato variety, which produces moderately high early-season (95–110 days after planting) yields of long tubers with brown-russet skin. It is notable for its very attractive, smooth tubers and resistances to internal and external defects with a high percentage of U.S. No. 1 tubers. Fresh merit ratings for Pomerelle Russet in trials conducted in Idaho, Oregon and Washington were consistently higher than Russet Burbank and Russet Norkotah. Early harvest yields for Pomerelle Russet are generally comparable to Russet Norkotah with a higher percentage of U.S. No. 1 tubers. Compared to Russet Burbank and Russet Norkotah, Pomerelle Russet has greater resistance to Potato mop-top virus, soft rot, corky ringspot and tuber infections from late blight. It also has higher protein and vitamin C concentrations than Ranger Russet, Russet Burbank and Russet Norkotah, indicating that it can provide an enhanced level of dietary protein and vitamin C relative to these standard potato varieties. Pomerelle Russet has moderate specific gravity and good resistance to sugar ends. It also has moderately long dormancy, about 30 days shorter than Russet Burbank. Average post-harvest processing ratings for Pomerelle Russet were similar to Ranger Russet and greater than Russet Burbank. Pomerelle Russet also has maintained acceptable fry color for about 180–200 days in storage at 8.9 °C, indicating potential for processing out of mid-term storage, with improved fry color uniformity relative to industry standards. However, its primary use appears to be as a high quality, early fresh variety.     

A simple Method for Selection of Potato Lines with a Higher Root/Total Ratio at an Early Stage in the Seedling Generation

Abstract

The growth directions and elongation rates of axile roots that compose the framework of an upland rice root system are quite varied. The objective of this study was to elucidate the direction of growth of the axile roots relative to their root diameter and the structural characteristics of their root caps. The relationships of photosynthate translocation to either the growth direction or the elongation rate of the axile roots were also examined using a stable isotope 13G. The growth direction of the axile roots significantly correlated with their diameter. The axile roots with a relatively large diameter tended to elongate vertically in the vegetative stage, though the regression coefficients varied according to phyllochrons. The roots that emerged at the reproductive stage elongated horizontally relative to the large diameter. In the roots that emerged at the same phyllochrons, the prophyll roots elongated more vertically than the proximal roots did. The axile roots that elongated vertically formed wide columellae and large amyloplasts in the cap cells. The highest ¹³C abundance in the axile root tip zone was found at 21 hrs after feeding ¹³CO₂. The length of the apical unbranched zone behind the axile root tip positively correlated with the ¹³C abundance in the root apical zones during the first 21 hrs after feeding, indicating that the roots that elongated fast would be superior in photosynthate intake in the apical zone. The axile roots that elongated vertically took in more photosynthate in their apical zones, however, the relationship was not particularly close.     

Design, Construction, and Testing of an Automated NIR In-line Analysis System for Potatoes. Part I: Off-line NIR Feasibility Study for the Characterization of Potato Composition

An off-line near-infrared reflectance (NIR) feasibility study was conducted to explore the critical steps in the NIR determination of the major potato constituents (dry matter, starch, and protein) in relatively large (10 kg) potato samples. The results were important for the design of an automated industrial analysis system for potatoes with in-line NIR. The 10-kg potato samples were pulped with an industrial rotary saw blade rasp. A critical step in the NIR measurements was the occurrence of phase separation in the potato pulp. Phase separation manifests itself directly after pulping the potatoes and significantly affects the NIR spectrum. Therefore, during the NIR measurements, the potato pulp had to be stirred continuously. The NIR spectra (1,100–2,500 nm) were measured by applying an optical fiber NIR probe (EDAPT-1) connected to the NIR spectrophotometer (Technicon Infralyzer IA 500). NIR models for the concentration of dry matter, starch, and coagulating protein in potatoes have been developed. With the partial least squares regression procedure, promising NIR models were calculated. The NIR models were validated using an independent validation set of potato samples. The root mean square error in prediction of the samples in the validation set was 0.5% (w/w) for dry matter, 0.63 (w/w) for starch concentration, and 0.06% (w/w) for the coagulating protein.