Drax to start energy crop farm
9 May 2011
Drax, UK – Drax is to start a 70-acre farm dedicated to the testing and development of energy crops for use in producing power from renewables, the company has announced.
The power generator’s Energy SMART Farm will be established on land within the boundaries of the power station site. It has been set up in partnership with Masstock Arable (UK) and Brown & Co – two companies working with Drax on its Green Shoots programme of direct contracts with farmers for the supply of biomass.
Crop planting is targeted from autumn this year and spring 2012, although the creation of an initial 10 acres of miscanthus began last week (Monday 11 April).
The farm covers marginal land which has required drainage and preparation to bring it back into production. This is a deliberate choice by Drax and its partners to reinforce sustainability principles in land use for energy crops.
“It is precisely this type of low grade land that can be given over to new use and we aim to inform farmers about the opportunities and help them see how energy crops or agricultural by-products might fit into their business.” said Rob Wood, biomass buyer at Drax.
The farm will be managed by Masstock, a UK agronomy and farm inputs firm as part of its nationwide network of sites. Findings from practical trials will be used to harness the farm’s output and add to the company’s research data on renewable energy crops. The farm will be overseen by David Wild, Masstock’s local agronomist and a member of its environmental group in the UK.
Establishing the farm has involved Brown & Co, the agricultural business consultants, in preparing the application for 50 per cent grant funding which is available for miscanthus planting and other financial support incentives for crops such as willow and poplar to be planted until 2013, as well as implementing sustainability measures.
Masstock will be considering types of wheat, barley, oats and tricticale among cereals to be cultivated to test for longer length of straw left from harvesting. Drax already uses thousands of tonnes of straw processed at its pelleting plant in Goole, three miles from the power station.
The Energy SMART Farm will also be a test-bed for Sorghum, an energy crop grown widely in the US, added Wood.
“The trial will examine what yield can be achieved and any pest problems. It might be that the plant is not well suited to the land, but we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
