- Location
- Cumbria
Our action to negate or slow global warming is clearly not going fast enough. I don't point the finger at the UK exclusively, we are far from the worst offenders, however in general, are we doing enough ?
Looking at Agriculture alone, currently social media is full of pictures of tractors, mowers, tedders, choppers, trailers, balers etc, etc as we take advantage of this glorious weather, and literally make hay/silage while the sun shines, in general great to see, as we all know what a struggle it is sometimes when mother nature plays games.
Then you see a wonderful new 150+hp tractor tedding, which of course begs the question about the viability and economics of such a misfit between power and power consumption.
Then look at the total hp/ton of hay or silage made, and looking deeper into the fuel/energy required per ton and ask the question, what is the average ?
A SP forage harvester weighs in at about 12.5 tons, so the engine has to lug that, as well as power the whole unit, similar to a combine. We then have multiple tractors and trailers, a loader / buckrake & tractor, this is after mowing, tedding, rowing etc.
So, once the sheet is on, or the grain store closed and the job completed, does anyone have a benchmark for how many galls of diesel/fuel per ton has been consumed, and what the CO2 emissions for silaging, hay making, or harvesting is ?
It is only a matter of time until fingers start to point, and these questions are asked, and without a benchmark, how do we improve our performance ?
Looking at Agriculture alone, currently social media is full of pictures of tractors, mowers, tedders, choppers, trailers, balers etc, etc as we take advantage of this glorious weather, and literally make hay/silage while the sun shines, in general great to see, as we all know what a struggle it is sometimes when mother nature plays games.
Then you see a wonderful new 150+hp tractor tedding, which of course begs the question about the viability and economics of such a misfit between power and power consumption.
Then look at the total hp/ton of hay or silage made, and looking deeper into the fuel/energy required per ton and ask the question, what is the average ?
A SP forage harvester weighs in at about 12.5 tons, so the engine has to lug that, as well as power the whole unit, similar to a combine. We then have multiple tractors and trailers, a loader / buckrake & tractor, this is after mowing, tedding, rowing etc.
So, once the sheet is on, or the grain store closed and the job completed, does anyone have a benchmark for how many galls of diesel/fuel per ton has been consumed, and what the CO2 emissions for silaging, hay making, or harvesting is ?
It is only a matter of time until fingers start to point, and these questions are asked, and without a benchmark, how do we improve our performance ?