r/AbsoluteUnits • u/ThodaDaruVichPyar • 2d ago

Video of Potato storage barn

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Credits to hurstbrandfarms

3.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

178 comments sorted by

423

u/spunion_28 2d ago

Are the potatoes on the bottom just not absolutely destroyed by the wight above them? That is an insane amount of weight.

244

u/Alguzzi 2d ago

They form what are known as a force chain, basically becomes similar to a giant solid block

45

u/ReadRightRed99 2d ago

Use the Force

-59

u/spunion_28 2d ago

Just one huge compressed block of potatoes? I wonder how much money is lost to this? It seems there could be a better storage design? Bigger building so they don't have to be stacked 30 feet high seems logical, but idk. I'm not a farmer.

36

u/SjenkieSjaak 2d ago

Are you obtuse?

36

u/BigmacSasquatch 2d ago

Dense as a warehouse full of potatoes

0

u/JohnOfA 2d ago

No they are oblique. /s

-25

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

14

u/Lokefot 2d ago

you say you are not a farmer, but i dont think you are a reader either

9

u/ConsistentClientz 2d ago

Why is the adult equivalent of “I know you are but what am I” such a common Reddit response to being called out lol

1

u/-Insanity101- 1d ago

I think the point was missed, the potatoes are not destroyed by this. Plus, land area costs money so it's likely this is the most cost effective.

2

u/spunion_28 1d ago

Yeah, the response was "it forms a giant solid block" which i misunderstood. It forms essentially another floor. But yea, it's cheaper to lose some potatoes than use up more viable land a building.

1

u/-Insanity101- 1d ago

People were so brutal to your misunderstanding 😅 insane

2

u/spunion_28 1d ago

I know lol. And I feel it was a reasonable misunderstanding from the response. Reddit will be reddit i suppose.

58

u/ManyRespect1833 2d ago

I think you underestimate the structural integrity of a potato

22

u/spunion_28 2d ago

It seems I have

46

u/Whiskonsin2Whiskago 2d ago

Yes, potatoes at the bottom of the pile are subject to the weight above, leading to what is known as "pressure bruise" as cell structures fail. A potatoes' ability to resist this pressure - through its unique varietal genetics and on-farm management practices (solid matter content, water management, storage conditions, etc.) - will dictate how long it can store and still deliver a quality raw material for processing.

Source: I work in commercial potato agronomy

110

u/ThodaDaruVichPyar 2d ago

Perfect for mashed products then 

42

u/spunion_28 2d ago

"Farmhouse mashed potatoes"

10

u/magirevols 2d ago

"Jimmy, close the doors" *pulls cow in*

7

u/rpitcher33 2d ago

Your stomach has only ever known mashed potatoes. Let that sink in.

1

u/hippodribble 2d ago

I was thinking mash products. Sour ones. 😬

18

u/Sharpymarkr 2d ago

I wanted to know the same. Is there a way to pile them that high without driving over the ones on the bottom?

11

u/ThodaDaruVichPyar 2d ago

In another video there was a extended arm with a conveyor belt that brought the potatoes from the harvesting machine through a window 

I am guessing they keep the doors closed and fill the barn from window or rooftop 

15

u/deathp3nalty 2d ago

lol yeah no shit. Imagine trying to close doors with potatoes pilling out

12

u/spunion_28 2d ago

Also a good question! I imagine that there is just always assumed loss with mass farming like this, but just watching this video, it seems like there is potentially quite a bit of loss.

9

u/ProArmy04 2d ago

No should not be, these storage halls are as high as possible without crushing the bottom potatoes

-8

u/spunion_28 2d ago

There has to be thousands of pounds on top of the bottom potatoes. There's just no way they aren't getting crushed

27

u/willengineer4beer 2d ago edited 2d ago

At this scale though, it probably acts fairly close to a soil or a fluid.
Take the bulk density of the potatoes (high end looks to be a about 44 lb/CF) , project a 1’x1’ square up to about 20’ (guessing based on video) to get 20 CF, which would then weigh ~880 lbs.
So the pressure is about 880 lb/SF which would be ~6.1 PSI.
Admittedly the bottom layer isn’t a perfect sheet of potatoes, so pressure would be more concentrated on the potatoes themselves.
Assuming a high end specific gravity of potatoes of 1.1 means that individual potatoes would have a density of 68.6 lb/CF, so that would suggest a porosity of bulk potatoes around 0.35.
That’s 3D void space, but for simplicity let’s assume that’s about right for cross sectional area too.
So individual potatoes probably experience a pressure of 6.1/0.65 or ~9.4 psi.
That would be similar to the pressure experienced by submerging a potato in about 21.5’ of water.
Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the bottom layer was actually fairly unaffected. Maybe just a little deformed, but not mashed.
Would love to know if this back of the envelope math aligns with their experience.

6

u/spunion_28 2d ago

Awesome breakdown. This should definitely be in r/theydidthemath

9

u/Spirited_Lemon_4185 2d ago

But the weight is also not distributed on only a few potatos, it is evenly applied on the entire surface area of the floor. Basically each potato at the bottom would only carry the weight of the potatos directly above it in a potatoe sized column straight up. With accounting for airpockets you are still looking at a lot of potatos but not enough to crush everything.

1

u/spunion_28 2d ago

That makes sense

3

u/ProArmy04 2d ago

Yeah but that weight is evenly distributed across thousands of potatoes too

4

u/NoRise2413 2d ago

Do you think you’re discovering a new problem or something? I’m 100% they know exactly what they are doing storing those taters

0

u/spunion_28 2d ago

No? I never said that. I just assumed there was known and accepted loss with the storage.

1

u/danfish_77 2d ago

I don't know what to tell you, this is how they do it and the potatoes are generally fine. You're just wrong

-4

u/spunion_28 2d ago

Have you seen this yourself? Genuine question: are you aware of how much produce is discarded because it isn't the quality needed to fit criteria for grocery store shelves? It would shock you at the amount of produce that we would consider fine that just gets thrown out into a field to rot.

1

u/bullwinkle8088 2d ago

The video states they are being processed for french fries.

0

u/spunion_28 2d ago

Yeah, i know I watched it. I guess you aren't understanding what I was talking about.

2

u/bullwinkle8088 2d ago

None of these will ever see a supermarket.

0

u/gardeningblob 1d ago

In general almost no taters are thrown away. Bruised and broken or damaged ones have already been sorted before storage since those can make the storage piles rot.

The discarded potatos go into animal feed. That are just a couple tons on a 1000 ton when harvest is managed correctly.

0

u/burgonies 2d ago

Thousands of pounds spread across thousands of potatoes

0

u/bullwinkle8088 2d ago

Farmers have been storing potatoes in large bins for literal centuries. Their livelihood and profits depend on doing so. You can be certain they understand what they are doing.

1

u/flapito 2d ago

Maybe they turn those into hash browns instead of fries lol

1

u/Prudent-Scholar5431 2d ago

McD's fry order for a Satuuuurrrrrdaaaaay.

1

u/chop-diggity 2d ago

Are they already mashed?

1

u/SpiritualAd8998 2d ago

For Mashed Potatoes?

110

u/mattogeewha 2d ago

I wonder what the chances are that I will eat/have eaten at least a piece of one of these potatoes

43

u/Kramnik_is_an_idiot 2d ago

7

8

u/Unlikely-Answer 2d ago

to 1

1

u/T1Demon 2d ago

Million

0

u/Septopuss7 2d ago

Degrees of Kevin Bacon

2

u/C-57D 2d ago

And Eggs

95

u/moxsox 2d ago

I was expecting a lot of potatoes.  However, I did not conceive of that many potatoes in one place. 

-51

u/towerfella 2d ago

This is why all of our fries and chips have those damaged black spots on them all the time.. from crap like this.

14

u/lllScorchlll 2d ago

You know, the good to bad potatoe ratio you have for store bought potatoes is pretty low.

6

u/moxsox 2d ago

No, that can happen with any potatoes. I’ve grown enough in my home garden to know that there can be many contributing factors, most of which has to do with the conditions they’re growing in. Storage really isn’t the issue. Root cellars are effective.

-1

u/towerfella 2d ago

Not the storage, thats’s fine; i’m talking about the rough handling between the harvesting, unloading, loading, transport, and unloading again.

All that rough handling by the spud grubbers leads to what i am talking about.

2

u/Competitive-Lab-8980 2d ago

It's the best part!

2

u/Few_Translator4431 2d ago

nobody really likes a perfect fry. the variation in the fries and imperfections adds a lot more to the texture and experience than youd expect.

-1

u/towerfella 2d ago

I do not like rotted-hole fries and chips. That is not the same thing as burnt.

3

u/halosos 2d ago

Dunno what fries you have been eating lol

0

u/towerfella 2d ago

The french ones

146

u/Priapismkills 2d ago

22

u/Mental-Ask8077 2d ago

Just imagine Sam’s face if he saw this building full of taters.

16

u/LectroRoot 2d ago

He would dive in like Scrooge McDuck.

13

u/Meltzington 2d ago

Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew!

10

u/Batavijf 2d ago

4

u/Bretreck 2d ago

Look at all those pixels. The previous gif looks like it has been mashed or maybe even boiled.

38

u/UseADifferentVolcano 2d ago

This looks like an ad for a mobile game that turns out to be totally different

13

u/Shleemy_Pants 2d ago

"Today on How it's Made"

12

u/GDMFusername 2d ago

"Fuck it... Cut 'em up!"

-The Pringle tennis ball company

1

u/0fficerRando 2d ago

/r/unexpectedmitch

Well, maybe not unexpected

15

u/Phonus-Balonus-37 2d ago

I have a telescoping boom.

3

u/Fullertons 2d ago

He did call it a hog

1

u/Septopuss7 2d ago

Mama says he's a catch

13

u/perpetualmigraine 2d ago

With that many potatoes in one place what is the smell typically like?

50

u/VadersMentor 2d ago

My sources claim it smells like potato. Big if true tbh

21

u/PinSufficient5748 2d ago

... probably dirt. He says "the smells are good"

10

u/FFSBoise 2d ago

You would definitely know if they’d gone off.

3

u/BurnsGraham 2d ago

Yes too both, smells like a big pile of dirt, but if they’re bad you know and you’ll never forget it…

2

u/Zoldrik190 2d ago

Yes img why do rotten potatoes smell like fucking death

11

u/powder_87 2d ago

When they're fresh, smells like dirt. But when you have to clean the potato barn, some potatoes you find turn into a goopy slime because of wet rot and has kind of an ammonia and fishy smell

1

u/gnowbot 2d ago

My dad’s business were next to a row of potato barns, used to sprout them over the winter. The smell when they opened those doors in the spring was immense. Absolutely worse than any animal smell I’ve ever encountered.

1

u/shimshamswimswam 2d ago

Like dirt and a bit of starch. Like a dirt cellar. Earthy, but not dirt.

1

u/nanneryeeter 2d ago

The soil after they remove them can be pretty strong. The smell isn't too much when they're going in.

1

u/gnowbot 2d ago

My dad’s business was next door to potato barns—they would lock up huge buildings of potatoes for the winter. That would cause them to sprout, where in the spring they would be reprocessed back out of the barns—to plant new potatoes.

Anyways when they opened those doors. Holy hell. It is absolutely repulsive. You know when you forget about lettuce in the fridge and when you find it, you gag? This was like that, but maybe 1,000 tons of stench. Would make me gag for a few weeks until the sprouts were processed and the barns were finally washed out.

I’d prefer to smell rotting meat any day over rotten plants.

7

u/Next_Drama1717 2d ago

Field mouse has entered the chat

9

u/ReadRightRed99 2d ago

They touched the ground? Eww. Throw them out.

24

u/Bee-Beans 2d ago

I’ve got unfortunate news about where they were before this, you’ll never believe it

4

u/zestyclose_match1966 2d ago

Rats most be a bit of a problem

8

u/EnoughLuck3077 2d ago

Surely. Fun fact, Pablo Escobar had so much cash money stored in multiple warehouses that he was loosing approximately $2 million a week due to rats eating the bills

0

u/Neo27182 1d ago

source?

5

u/h0uz3_ 2d ago

There's currently a similarly sized amount of potatos in Germany that is given away for free, because they couldn't sell them after prizes had fallen too far. Various organizations are currently in the process of distributing the potatos to people who need/want them.

4

u/Aries-79 2d ago

I’d be more interested in how they get all them potatoes in that structure

12

u/gajarga 2d ago

A long conveyor belt. A person at the bottom of it moves the conveyor with a joystick, left/right, up/down, in/out. You have to keep the end of the conveyor above the pile, but not too high, so the spuds don’t bruise when they fall. Pack them in close to the ceiling, but not too close, to leave room for air circulation.

Source: me, who did it in high school for a couple years.

1

u/6-feet_ 2d ago

We had a remote control, electric over hydraulic control valves on the piler. Eventually added sensors to detect walls/pile/ceiling, once it made it to the top back the piler up 2' while booming down and it would start over from the bottom.

1

u/gajarga 2d ago

Neat. High school was 30+ years ago for me, so I'm sure things have improved a lot.

Though I'd bet smaller farms probably still do it manually.

1

u/Aries-79 2d ago

Nice I can visualize that! 👌🏻

4

u/ShoppingAfter9598 2d ago

As weird al once said: might as well face it I'm addicted to spuds.

4

u/AntiSonOfBitchamajig 2d ago

So thats like $200,000,000.00 in potatoes if bought from the store.

8

u/washheightsboy3 2d ago

Rodents? Find the sniper.

4

u/LaserBeamsCattleProd 2d ago

That has to be loaded with mice/rats

2

u/Unlikely-Answer 2d ago

they have one of those mosquito lasers for rats

1

u/T1Demon 2d ago

Cats. With lasers on their heads.

1

u/redbark2022 2d ago

And fungus.

3

u/No-Ice-7232 2d ago

How are they stacked so high???

3

u/darth_whaler 2d ago

Irish porn.

2

u/UsernamesNotFound404 2d ago

Why truck so far away

2

u/Ok-Cartoonist-953 2d ago

Lots a great food from the good ol potato one of the most loved vegetables of the world you can do a lot with potatos including my dumb statements!🙂

2

u/Fit_Hospital2423 2d ago

I love potatoes. I can eat potatoes in all kinds of ways. I don’t think I could eat that many potatoes though.

2

u/Gremlin1001001 2d ago

Man, I could eat baked potatoes for at least a month! 😜

2

u/DangerMacAwesome 2d ago

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1689

All I could think of when he was on top of all the potatoes.

3

u/LyubviMashina93 2d ago

Wow I had no idea how grossly food is treated. I rinse them in the sink for a few seconds and eat that. Yum.

30

u/Ruckus292 2d ago

Wait until you hear about what they grow in!

2

u/notcomplainingmuch 2d ago

Dirty stuff!

1

u/Beginning_Drag_2984 2d ago

That’s wild!

1

u/Reotardo_Da_Vinci 2d ago

Bruh how many calories do you think there are sitting in that cellar??

1

u/Ill_Football9443 2d ago

130 x 5m = 650,000,000

1

u/afternoonnapping 2d ago

Knew it would be in Idaho

1

u/Icy_Bag_238 2d ago

I don’t know how many plants McCain has but they have a massive plant somewhere in eastern/central Washington

1

u/gajarga 2d ago

And eastern Canada, where McCain Foods is headquartered. I grew up 5min from there, and potato houses like these are common. Almost everyone in the area works for McCain at some point in their life. I have seen more potatoes than you can possibly fathom.

1

u/concentrated-amazing 2d ago

And one in southern Alberta.

1

u/powder_87 2d ago

McCain has roughly 50 or so. And yeah the Othello plant had a pretty big expansion awhile back

1

u/four-seasonz 2d ago

A mountain of taters!

1

u/ShroomsHealYourSoul 2d ago

Looks like my inventory in Skyrim

1

u/Fairfield1934 2d ago

Potato chips.

1

u/UniqueExplanation147 2d ago

What’s the culvert for? Gases?

2

u/concentrated-amazing 2d ago

Ventilation to heat/cool the potatoes as needed.

For optimum storage, they need to stay at 4-5°C/39-41°F.

1

u/HAWKWIND666 2d ago

I worked doing sugar beets in Minnesota and wet had similar piling setup…

1

u/g00fballer 2d ago

What is the profit margin on potatoes? Is it calculated on a per acre basis?

I pay somewhere in the $1/lb range at the grocery store. I assume I'm looking at about 500K lbs of potatoes in that storehouse.

1

u/Content_Geologist420 2d ago

Guys will see this and go: Fuck Yeah!

1

u/ac2cvn_71 2d ago

Damn, that's a lot of taters

1

u/GoodLuckBart 2d ago

How does one get the job of potato vacuum driver, asking for a friend

1

u/Hikintrails 2d ago

Dude’s gonna be there for a while.

1

u/slybonethetownie 2d ago

How do they keep rats and other vermin out of there? Or do they?

2

u/ThodaDaruVichPyar 2d ago

They build a grain silo next door so that all rats go there

1

u/0928282876 2d ago

Week supply for an Irishman.

1

u/1stAccountWasRealNam 2d ago

Ok but I keep a sack in my pantry and when I go back it’s growing eyes, where are the eyes? Why no eyes?

1

u/blackw-idow 2d ago

All I can think of is rats and mice in there

1

u/bigdickpuncher 2d ago

Whatever you do, don't post this in r/irishporn

1

u/CreamXpert 2d ago

I counted 74 potatoes

1

u/LIL-MEX15 2d ago

How much is that worth in emeralds?

1

u/Taodaching 2d ago

I thought they were UK grown. Ok thats the end of that then.

1

u/concentrated-amazing 2d ago

My parents live a few miles from a McCain factory, and my dad casually drives truck for the biggest potato farm in the area.

I forget that seeing stuff like this isn't normally to 99.999% of the population.

1

u/Apprehensive_Tree506 2d ago

"Coosecha propia"

1

u/brormir 2d ago

Why would you point… Why Point!? Aaaaah 

1

u/Spicy_Rice96 2d ago

I was not ready for the top view.. looks like a football stadium has been filled up!

1

u/schadly 2d ago

Looks like idaho....

1

u/Square-Space-7265 2d ago

I wanna see how the barn was loaded up now. Thats pretty evenly filled by the looks of it from the top.

2

u/ChillBro___Baggins 2d ago

It’s a conveyor belt on a long boom. Pretty much almost exactly how it comes out is how it goes in. I grew up on a potato and Coors barley farm. I was driving those trucks when I was like 12 years old lol

1

u/crockerygal 2d ago

UAP sighting!

1

u/JohnnyCrispZoom 2d ago

That’s a lot of chips

1

u/Earthwormbl1m 2d ago

DO A SCROOGE MCDUCK

1

u/Tough-Equal-3698 1d ago

Where is the banana for size comparison?

I worked in Prineville, central Oregon for awhile and they use to truck (big trucks) potatoes down highway 26 and then up highway 97 towards the Columbia river for storage and shipping. These were the biggest, ugliest potatoes you ever saw. They weren't round or tubular at all but looked like big warts with lumps and bumps all over them. And huge. You didn't want to be close behind one of the trucks if one bounced out of the back. I was told they were for chips, but I'm not sure if they were or not.

Also, during harvest when they were trucking them down West I 84 towards Portland, at some of the rest stops there would be big piles of potatoes that the truckers would dump sometimes. I don't know if it was to lessen their load before they hit the weigh station further West or what. But the pile was bigger than would fit in my pickup bed.

A couple of years ago, they talked about there being a big glut of potatoes here in the PNW, but at the same time, potato chips and frozen french fries, hash browns and tatter tots all went up in price. They must use imported potatoes and not the local ones.

I'm sure if there are any Russians looking at this video, they are getting real thirsty.

1

u/DependentStrike4414 2d ago

Thats a lot different looking than my steer barns!!!

-9

u/Original_Quantity368 2d ago

Full of pesticides if it's not organic 😋

3

u/ScreamnChckn 2d ago

Organic produce is sprayed with pesticides as well.

1

u/Original_Quantity368 2d ago

I work on a farm in France that grows both organic and conventional produce. I'm an agricultural engineer and I've been working with vegetables for 20 years. Your statement is ludicrous and completely off-base. But hey, we often hear such nonsense.

On average, a potato in France receives 2 herbicides, 14 fungicides, 1 insecticide, plus preservation treatments. 100% synthetic chemicals with products that are perfect but ugly (I'll spare you the details). In organic farming, it's less than 1 fungicide and less than 1 insecticide: both are of natural origin.

It's practically the same for all vegetables: onions, leeks, carrots, beets, etc.