CHERRY HILL COOLSTORES &
TASMANIAN SEED POTATOES
MARCH 2024
Happy Easter! In our March newsletter, Edition 39, we’d like to share with you our Cherry Hill season report, plus the last in the series ‘Anecdotes from Poppy’. We also report on Where’s Wayne site map launch and introduce a new staff member to the team. Read on for these stories and more…
Pictured: Where’s Wayne commemorated with a big sign in our reception
IN THIS ISSUE
SEASON REPORT
Pictured left to right: Lynette Nankervis, Wayne Maxwell, Andrew Vandenberg, Justin Johnson, Iris Bacosa, Conor O’Doherty, Andrew Langmaid, Dominy O’Doherty and Pam Langmaid.
We’ve had an exceptional start to the season, and a very early one, with our first intake of seed arriving in mid-February.
Due to very dry conditions, most growers have had to pre-water to assist with their harvesting. We were pleased to get the seed out without too much hassle.
We’re tracking ahead of schedule with 6,000 tonnes of seed already in cool storage – double that of this time last year. Our staff have been amazing and we’re already halfway through our scheduled bulk unloading. We have Simplot scheduled to begin harvesting post-Easter which has removed workload pressure for our bulk unloading team and clients, with reduced competition for our unloading equipment and delays for truck drivers. We sure hope it continues this way.
Cutting is scheduled to commence in mid-April. As always, if anyone has any special requests to please contact Conor or Wayne.
“Growers are pleased to get their seed out, without too much hassle this year.”
Conor O’Doherty
Simplot successfully completed a carrot digging trial in February. By the third week in March, we had the bulk of carrots harvested and in cool storage, and we have washing planned for mid-April.
Driscoll’s canes have started to arrive for short-term storage, with everything running smoothly so far.
TASMANIAN SEED POTATOES
“It has certainly been an early season, with harvesting commencing in mid-February. We are 65% through harvest, and yields are slightly above average with seed sizes smaller than they have been for the past couple of years. There are no issues of concern showing at the moment.”
Andrew Vandenberg
MAINTENANCE REPORT
We’ve had a huge Summer, with a full shutdown of all machinery so that we could rebuild the carrot and cutting line equipment, as well as all bulk unloaders – it has been our busiest year on record. The bulk unloaders have been busy, and the cutting line is ready to be commissioned for an April kick off.
Our goal is always to have more efficient machinery, less downtime, and more productivity, thereby eliminating waste.
Justin Johnson
WAYNE’S CONOR’S WORLD
“We’ve had a very good start to the season, we’re pleased with the condition of seed, with very minimal issues noticed for powdery scab and soft rot. In fact, things have been looking so good that Wayne has taken an unprecedented week of holidays to visit family…a whole week off…in March! This has never happened before.
Conor O’Doherty
A SLICE OF LIFE AT CHERRY HILL
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WHERE’S WAYNE SITE MAP
As we work our way through the finer details in our office administration expansion, the design of our foyer has been an important part of our communication. We knew we needed a big site map in reception, to assist visitors with their navigation around our ever-expanding number of coolstores.
We hear the words “Where’s Wayne?” spoken countless times in a day, and so our communications team decided to combine these two concepts together – we launched our Where’s Wayne site map just before Christmas and celebrated an official reveal of the map by Wayne and his partner Julie. Wayne said “Overall, it has come up alright. You’ve missed my flying forklift, but you’ve done a good job.” and Julie noted “It looks good”.
We thank Wayne for his good humour in allowing us to feature him in this map.
We invite you and your children to tally up how many Wayne’s appear in the map…can anyone guess this correctly? Click here to view a digital map, or pop into our reception and grab your very own A3 poster keepsake.
FIRST AID COURSE
The Cherry Hill Coolstores’ team recently attended a two-day intensive First Aid course on site with St John Ambulance.
This included first aid, basic emergency life support and CPR.We’d especially like you to know that we have a defibrillator machine on site – you’ll find it located in our reception, and it’s available to anyone during business hours.
However, if you have an emergency situation after hours, please call Conor who can open our front door (remotely) for you.If you’re interested in attending a First Aid course, you can book online at stjohntas.org.au
New Digs
Pictured: Lee Loring of Neal Bros in Yolla, receiving a new bucket hat.
ANECDOTE’S FROM POPPY
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GETTING TO KNOW KEVIN LANGMAID BETTER
Pictured: Kevin Langmaid
Our last in the series where Kevin’s work career changed yet again, culminating in the purchase of Elliston’s Coolstores in 1990, now known as Cherry Hill Coolstores.
“During the mid 1980s Vecon farm was sold I was asked to work for Bruce Cutts, a director of Vecon, who had started a company called Cutts Machinery. This work was operating large bean seeders and harvesters around Tasmania.
Three years into my position at Cutts Machinery, I was asked by a Tasmanian ice rink operator to join him in starting a rink in Devonport. After much discussion we built the new rink at William Street (now the Ten Pin Bowling Centre). I was asked to manage the project including building and operating it.
This project went very well for first 12 months, but then over the following 18 months revenue declined to a level which was not sustainable, so we decided to sell it to a ten pin bowling company. I did not want to leave any finance in that venture, but I did undertake the start of an on site shop there which was reasonably successful.
About six months into the shop project, I was approached by work colleagues Gay and Mike Broadby, who wanted me to join their newly set up vegetable exporting company as their Agriculture Manager, to organise their growers, plant the crops, and harvest crops at a factory in Ulverstone. After suffering a loss in the ice-skating rink venture, that had demolished a lot of our savings, I decided to take the job and sell the shop at the Ten Pin Bowling Centre.
I was now back in a position I was very experienced in, and we set about building a company called Perfecta Produce, exporting mainly onions to Europe. These times were interesting, challenging and also a great learning period for me, as I had to attend overseas education trips to England, Holland, USA and New Zealand. I worked for Perfecta for 8-9 years until Gay and Mike’s sons were ready to join the company.
When they began to make decisions into the future, I recognised that they were not familiar with the agriculture industry and would not appreciate the effort that I had put into their family business, so finding a business for myself became more of a priority.
During my time at Perfecta, I had ample opportunity to implement some of my own ideas in vegetable production and handling, one of which was to introduce the 12-tonne container system to replace the half tonne box traditional system.
In 1990 Andrew and I purchased Ellistons Coolstore in Latrobe, and renamed it to Cherry Hill Coolstores. It was then handling 500 tonne of seed in 9 coolstores on 180 acres of land.
The last 34 years has seen the business grow to 26 coolstores with the ability to handle 20,000 tonnes of product. During that time we have been shipping produce interstate and overseas and continue to grow and evolve our services and work practices.”
We thank Kevin for his anecdotes and an insight into his life in the agricultural industry, from the 1930s to early 2000s.
STAFF PROFILE: LYNETTE NANKERVIS
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Lynette is proudly Tasmanian born and bred, having grown up on the west coast of Tassie.
Early in her career she worked for the Avebury Nickel Mine in Zeehan, before spending five-years travelling around Australia in a bus with her husband. She has enjoyed multiple trips to New Zealand and Queensland with her sisters. She spends her recreational time reading, playing board games and spending time with her two children who live in Hobart and Ulverstone.
Lynette commenced employment with Cherry Hill Coolstores in early 2024. Lynette is our newest Office Administrator, and she is your first smiling face upon arrival to our reception – she has very quickly proven herself to be a wonderful asset and the perfect fit into our family at Cherry Hill Coolstores.
Pictured: Lynette Nankervis
Pictured: Wayne is enjoying the warm weather while on holidays on the mainland.
TESTIMONIAL… Very professional
“I’ve worked for McCain for 23 years, and with Cherry Hill Coolstores for 20 of those. I have a close working relationship with the whole crew – in particular with Conor, Andrew Langmaid, Wayne and Iris. Cherry Hill Coolstores look after a significant amount of seed for our growers, it’s critical to attain expert management of good quality seed for our growers, precise administration detail and good cutting services. For us, it all starts with good quality seed, so that our growers have the best chance of producing a good yield. I find Cherry Hill Coolstores to be very professional across the board. ”
Josh Opas – Agricultural Manager, McCain Foods ANZ
View more of our testimonials here.
CHERRY HILL COOLSTORES SEED GUARANTEE
Our Seed Management Services. Cherry Hill Coolstores will guarantee our services on Seed Growers seed. If you buy someone else’s certified seed, which is presented to Cherry Hill in good condition, and it breaks down, we will replace our cutting and services at no charge.
This guarantee specifically refers to seed piece breakdown (i.e. rot), and refers to seed which is delivered directly to Cherry Hill Coolstores from the seed paddock for chemical application, coolstoring and cutting. In order for this guarantee to be valid, the Buyer must make claims within 24-hours of the seed leaving Cherry Hill Coolstores and 
before planting.
In order for this guarantee to be valid, the buyer must make claims with 24 hours of the seed leaving Cherry Hill and before planting.
View more about our guarantee here.
MISSED A PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER?
Read past editions of our newsletter here.
GALLERY ADDITIONS
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