[Charliesixtysix]

Haven’t ploughed for 33 years! That’s yesteryear farming.

Look away now Mr Farmer


A bit of yesteryear farming going on here this week.

Ploughing is one of the most satisfying jobs of the year for me. This week has been spent spreading and ploughing in 40T/ha of spent digestate from the local AD plant ahead of this year’s energy crop maize going in.

The digestate will supply a large proportion of the nutrient for this year’s crop, helping towards sustainable renewable energy production.

[Sooty25]

Maize for the local AD is grow at our strip. I was quite surprised to find it is more profitable to grow a crop which is basically shredded and left to rot for energy production, than it is to grow food.

[skydriller]

Ploughing? Ok, it looks like a pretty straight furrow... but with trash-boards and no disk-coulters for that nice sharp edge...my Grandad would be apoplectic!! (Ive never not used a reversable, so wont mention that...though he would have done!!)
I used to like ploughing matches - do they still happen??

Regards, SD..

[Charles Hunt]

I think I understand C66 ploughing in spent digestate from and AD plant, assuming we are talking of a wastewater treatment plant, but not Sooty's example of growing maize for an AD plant. Can you clarify?

[TheKentishFledgling]

I had to google “AD plant” - at first I somehow thought he was growing a load of maize for his local aerodrome, which did seem odd

[Bill McCarthy]

I would think that most counties have a ploughing match - there two per year here covering all classes, for vintage through to the most modern. Thinning matches are a thing of the past now.
I think @farmers cultivation method only works for stubble, or after a previous crop. Hundreds of thousands of hectares are still ploughed in the normal manner.

[skydriller]

I think @farmers cultivation method only works for stubble, or after a previous crop. Hundreds of thousands of hectares are still ploughed in the normal manner.

Presumably soil type and previous crop(s) grown would make a difference?

[Charliesixtysix]

I think I understand C66 ploughing in spent digestate from and AD plant, assuming we are talking of a wastewater treatment plant, but not Sooty's example of growing maize for an AD plant. Can you clarify?

Yes, the maize crop is grown in partnership with Severn Trent Greenpower as feedstock for their digester at Stoke Bardolph. The spent digestate comes back as fertilizer as part of our trading agreement.

https://www.stgreenpower.co.uk/where-we ... d-facility

[kanga]

..
I used to like ploughing matches - do they still happen??

....

They do in Borsetshire

One of my sister's university boyfriends, reading Agriculture, was very proud of his 'half-blues' for ploughing, tractor and heavy horse categories ('60s)

[Charles Hunt]

C66

Many thanks, I had assumed that the digestate was just from a municipal wastewater sludge plant, I didn't realise we are now growing crops to be added into the anaerobic digestion process.

[Charliesixtysix]

Biogas production is far from cutting a crop and leaving it to rot.
An energy maize crop will produce around 6000cu m of methane per hectare plus a good bit of heat. The gas is either fed to direct to grid, or used to run generators. The heat is used in renewable heating projects. Spent digestate goes back to the crop suppliers as fertilizer.
Everything but the squeak is used.

[Charliesixtysix]

I used to like ploughing matches - do they still happen??

Regards, SD..

They most certainly do - I am part of the show build team for Southwell Ploughing Match and Show, which is the biggest one day event of the year in Nottinghamshire. It is held annually on the last Saturday of September, with up to 10,000 visitors attending.

A short video taken at the show few years ago here:

[Sooty25]

I think I understand C66 ploughing in spent digestate from and AD plant, assuming we are talking of a wastewater treatment plant, but not Sooty's example of growing maize for an AD plant. Can you clarify?

Sorry, my hurried post assumed people knew about anaerobic digesters, (AD) which to be fair I didn't pay any attention to either, until a couple of years ago!

The strip I'm based at grows a low grade maize crop. It stands a good 8-10ft tall when ready for harvest.

It is cut, shredded and dumped into big trailers at harvest and then shipped off to the local AD plant, where it gets placed in large domes to basically rot down producing biogas to run generators, producing electricity for the grid.

I missed out the transportation bit!

[Bill McCarthy]

Is the “digestate” free ?

[Charliesixtysix]

It is factored as part of our feedstock supply agreement - we pay for haulage and spreading.