b'The National Fry Processors Trial Takes A New ShapeJohn Lundeen, Potato Research Director, and Alyssa Geeen, Research Communications, Potatoes USATheNationalFryProcessorsTrialhold,andphysicallyexaminethe (NFPT)workstoidentifypotatotuberswithoutconstraint.Brad variety candidates that are ideal forHalladay,leadengineerat the industry, with strong agronom- Medius.Re,previouslyadoptedan ics and great processing characteris- onlinemodelwheremembers tics.NFPTmembershipincludesgained the ability to view images of frozen processors, state grower asso- potatoesandevaluatetheappear-ciations,growers,anduniversityance of each variety in the trialing breeders.Theprogramhasseensystem.somesuccess-CaribouRussetis amongthosevarietiesmakingaTo avoid losing exterior evaluation splashinthesystem.Varietiesgodata and keep the evaluation system through different levels of the sys- consistentfrompreviousyears, tem called tiers to examine theirmodifications were made to display promise in comparison to standardmore information to provide users varieties,exploringtheirpotentialwiththesamedigitalexperience before reaching the market. theyhadgrownaccustomedto withouttheabilitytobeon-site A US PotatoesHistorically,inOctoberafterhar- with the potatoes. While different, vest, NFPT holds an annual field daythisnewsystemkeepsthetrialing in East Grand Forks, Minnesota sochannel afloat.that members can provide an initial Messageevaluation of candidates in Tier 1, 2,DarrinHaagensonofThe and3oftheNFPTvarietytrials.DepartmentofAgriculture-Then,inJanuary,membersmeetAgriculturalResearchServices again to make their final decisions(USDA-ARS) was key to this opera-on which candidates will move for- tion, opening his facility to lay out ward to the next step of the trialingand photograph the different vari-system.However,whenthepan- eties. Additional praise goes to the demic hit, a new evaluation practicetrial cooperators for harvesting and wasadoptedtokeeptheprogramgathering initial data for evaluation robustandonschedule.Thefieldto streamline the process. day consists of examining each vari-ety, including the ability to touch,In October of 2021, NFPT had a crit-6 POTATO GROWER MARCH 2022'