Poached and pasteurized
By CHRISTINA SELBY
In the U.S., eggs that are pasteurized in the shell are the next wave in attempts to create a risk-free food supply.Pasteurized Eggs, L.P. (PE-LP) in New Hampshire has developed a process for pasteurizing eggs in the shell. The company recently obtained U.S. Department of Agriculture approval to display a certified pasteurized seal on packaging and individual eggs.
John Davidson, president of PE-LP, suggests that "in not more than five years, a raw shell egg will be unusual to find." Citing pasteurized milk, once the technology made it possible the process became law, Davidson says.
Davidson has been working with Health Canada for 18 months to obtain approval for use of the technology in Canada and says the company is "nearly through the approval process." He says the company has fulfilled additional requirements over the USDA data and is "optimistic" about the outcome.
Pasteurized liquid eggs are recommended by Health Canada for use by food institutions for people at risk, such as young children and the elderly.
PE-LP's focus has been on developing the process rather than producing eggs, says Randall Thompson, vice-president. He says the company is marketing the technology in machinery manufactured by Food Processing Systems. Machinery using the technology can only be sold to licensees of PE-LP, which makes its money in royalties paid by producers on a per-dozen basis.
The equipment is expected to sell for US$1.5 million, and two producers are now licensed to produce pasteurizedeggs, one in the U.S. and Les Oeufs Breton in Quebec. Production is set to begin in the U.S. in the fall. The eggs are expected to retail for US$0.35 to $0.50 per dozen above regular shell eggs.
The machinery will process 1,000 eggs per minute, passing them through a series of warm water baths, then returning the eggs to an internal yolk temperature of 41 F. A wax-based sealant is then applied to give the eggs a longer shelf-life. After three months in storage, the eggs retain all the characteristics of a fresh, raw egg, he says: "It looks, tastes and cooks like a raw egg."
Numerous restaurant chains and retailers in Canada have voiced
interest in
PE-LP's technology, and Davidson says his company will "cement"
those deals
if Health Canada approval is confirmed.
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Sweet times for nectarines
Nectarine production is heating up in Ontario, and growers will
need some
orderly marketing to avoid price chaos five years down the road,
says Len
Troup, chairman of the Ontario Tender Fruit Producers' Marketing
Board.
Ontario's farm marketing board watchdog thinks otherwise,
however.
Troup, a Jordan tender fruit grower re-elected last month to a second term as board chairman, says an estimated 900 acres of nectarine trees are in the ground in Ontario. At half production level, Troup says, growers could put half-a-million 25-pound boxes of nectarines in the market next year, a lot of fruit for a sector of the industry without minimum pricing or organized marketing.
The tender fruit board has no formal authority over nectarines and recently asked the Farm Products Marketing Commission to conduct a vote of growers on whether the board's mandate should include nectarines and fresh market sweet cherries. The commission agreed to the vote on sweet cherries but turned down the request for nectarines.
Troup says his board is "looking two or three years down the road," citing the Ontario sour cherry market, which plunged from 500 to 93 growers in a decade, as an example of what can go wrong. "I know we can avoid it" with the help of organized marketing, he says.
The commission didn't share the board's point of view, however. Paul Glenney, staff at the commission, says there was "significant opposition" to the inclusion of nectarines in the board's mandate from "growers representing a significant level of production." The board has requested a meeting to further discuss the issues, due to take place in May, says Glenney.
While nectarines have been grown in Ontario for at least 20 years, varieties suitable for the climate have only recently been developed, says Troup.
According to the 1994 tree fruit census undertaken by the board, there were 13,491 nectarine trees in 1990; by 1994, there were 138,580. Nectarines will be a major crop in the next five years and Troup predicts growers risk overproduction.
He says the fresh peach sector is an example of how orderly marketing can save an industry from overproduction. When peach growers started to enjoy healthy returns in the early 1980s, others jumped on the bandwagon and planted heavily. When those trees came on-stream in the late '80s, the oversupply resulted in "disastrous pricing," Troup says. "We had more peaches than we could effectively market."
The single-desk selling system evolved into about 10 individual sellers, followed by a learning curve as the market settled out. Today, there are half-a-dozen sellers, with Vineland Growers, a grower-owned co-operative, as the "dominant player," he says.
The result today is a healthy market. "If we do a good marketing
job, we
have enough production to fill the market," he says, and growers
aren't
forced to dump surplus fruit on the market, creating price havoc.
Fresh
market peaches were valued at approximately $510 per ton in 1988;
by last
year, they were worth $905 per ton. - Christina Selby
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UNDER THE HOOD
By Keith Berglind
Take time to cool that turbo
Most operators have heard the standard advice to cool down the turbo before going in for lunch or shutting down for the night. But who has time in spring to sit in the tractor for five minutes? I say make time for it and you'll avoid costly repairs or replacement.On the road in the U.S. west and southwest this winter, and along the Trans Canada, I spent some extra time on my fuel stops watching other small diesel truckers to see if the average operator does cool down his diesel after coming off the highway. It was disappointing to see many guys, especially those with big cattle trailers or RVs, pull off, go straight for the pump and shut down the engine. When I asked one farmer about letting his turbocharger cool down he said it would be OK because it would be cool enough after he finished lunch.
Sorry, sir, that's not how it works.
Most turbo damage comes at the bushing (bearing) and steel ring areas right behind the turbo's exhaust turbine wheel. In many cases with farm tractor turbos the centre shaft will be blue with heat. These areas are normally kept cool while the engine is running by the high volume of engine oil that flows through the turbo. The oil enters at the top of the centre housing and flows over the shaft and bushings before draining out the bottom and back to the crankcase.
The damage-causing heat comes from the turbine wheel. When your turbo is up to speed under load this wheel gets pink or red hot. The only way to get it cooled down is to run without a load long enough for all that heat to dissipate into the now-cooler exhaust gases.
Stopping the engine while this turbine wheel is very hot will cause the heat to move quickly into the seal rings and bushings. Any trapped oil will instantly burn, leaving abrasive carbon everywhere. Also, if the oil is burned off, you may have metal-to-metal contact the next time the engine starts up, especially if you rev the engine quickly, before the oil pressure can build up and re-lubricate the bushing.
How long is enough?
Imagine you've just heated a three-inch circular piece of metal on your welding table until it was cherry red. How long would it be before you'd touch it with your bare hand?
Obviously, the turbine wheel should cool off a bit more quickly if spinning in the cooler exhaust gases, but you can be sure it won't be cool enough in 30 seconds, about the average length of time many farmers and truckers allow.
I don't have a farm tractor with a turbo right now, but I do use my Ford F-250 to pull a lot of trailer weight. At 100 km/h, I'm pulling about eight psi boost, and on a long hill can feel the floorboards getting hot. My usual shutdown time is at least five minutes - and that's five minutes after there's no manifold boost reading on the dash gauge.
I usually keep my door key in my pocket, so I can leave the truck
running
while I have lunch. It's a habit I notice a lot of Class 8
highway truckers
have, and they're usually longer than five minutes. So ask your
dealer's
mechanic what he thinks is a good time frame, follow that advice,
and think
about installing a turbo boost gauge on the dash. I wouldn't be
without
one.
Keith Berglind is a licensed heavy duty mechanic.
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By John muggeridge
In these days of genetic engineering and GPS, "scuffling" a field rates right back there with "stooking" hay. Not so for the Van Osch brothers, who farm along the Middlesex-Huron county line at Crediton. With an eye to the future, Fred and Gerald are heading into their sixth year of scuffling, or inter-row cultivating, white beans and corn. The 44-foot, 24-row Salford scuffler, built by Salford Farm Machinery in Salford, matches their 24-row planter on 22-inch rows. The machine cost $20,000, and about $3 an acre to run off Van Osch Farms' 160-hp 8100 John Deere tractor, but Fred sees ongoing and future savings. Scuffling between the rows allows the brothers to band herbicide in 11-inch bands at planting, for a savings of about $12 an acre on Pursuit, for instance - good insurance for the day when crop prices take their inevitable plunge. There's also an environmental benefit to putting on less chemical. Used twice on 800 acres of whites, and once on 1,600 acres of corn, the machine costs out nicely over a large acreage, Fred adds. Scuffling 22-inch corn and white bean rows takes a good night's sleep. The 12-inch tooth leaves a five-inch margin of error on each side, says Fred. Four rows fit beneath the tractor on 88-inch centres, and 12.5 X 54 "pizza-cutter" rear duals straddle a row. The unit folds in four, for an 11-foot transport width. A winged tooth is used for ridging white beans to accommodate the rod puller at harvest. A flat tooth leaves corn ground largely undisturbed. Working depth is two inches, and each sweep has an individual trip system for stones. Soys aren't scuffled - "We don't want to disturb the stone population," Fred quips. Corn is scuffled mid-June, at six to 12 inches. Whites are scuffled afterwards, about the first week of July, and a second time two weeks later. The brothers also band 28-per-cent nitrogen at scuffling, from two 250-gallon saddle tanks. Corn gets 45 pounds actual to top up the Terragator 125-pound broadcast in the spring. White beans get a 25-pound liquid band to supplement a 25-pound broadcast. Fred says whites benefit from a second kick of N, especially if heavy spring rains drive N below shallow hair roots. On the weed control end, Fred says the scuffling is mainly aimed at grasses, though the solid tooth does a fine job of shearing off stubborn milkweed roots as well. The brothers find that a combination of scuffling and post-emergent broadleaf spray gives stronger control than broadleaf spray at planting. Corn gets a Frontier band at planting, or Clarity for fields with a clean history, and whites a Pursuit band. If broadleaf pressure is heavy in corn, the Van Osches overlay Clarity with the sprayer before scuffling. They get an overlay of Basagran after first scuffle: "They have to be extremely clean," says Fred.back