Who's growing Miscanthus etc for burning?

Chippy

Member
Location
Cumbria
Which crop are people growing that will eventually be baled to go into a boiler? I'm thinking of growing something that will act as pheasant cover for shooting then after 2 seasons mow it and bale it but I know nothing about it so who can enlighten me on the process?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Which crop are people growing that will eventually be baled to go into a boiler? I'm thinking of growing something that will act as pheasant cover for shooting then after 2 seasons mow it and bale it but I know nothing about it so who can enlighten me on the process?

its terrible pheasant cover - foxes love to hide in it and it almost impossible to beat to get birds out off
 
Location
East Mids
ADAS did a load of work on miscanthus and planted big areas to it - they were unfortunately too far ahead of the game and the market did not develop as fast as envisaged. Can you get a baler on the ground in Feb/Mar which is probably when baled?
 
ADAS did a load of work on miscanthus and planted big areas to it - they were unfortunately too far ahead of the game and the market did not develop as fast as envisaged. Can you get a baler on the ground in Feb/Mar which is probably when baled?

No real problem getting the balers on because once established the rhizomes help support them - main problem in a wet spring can be getting the green out of the cane before baling - As cut can be 18 - 22 % but needs to be below 13 - 14 to burn properly so headlands might need turning etc.

This year ours came in at 9 - 11 % and in 8 years have never sent any away over 14, but I do know of one grower who got caught out and had to leave the cut cane down because it was wet and got grown through - next years harvest was phenomenal though.
 
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Chippy

Member
Location
Cumbria
No real problem betting the balers on because once established the rhizomes help support them - main problem in a wet spring can be getting the green out of the cane before baling - As cut can be 18 - 22 % but needs to be below 13 - 14 to burn properly so headlands might need turning etc.

This year ours came in at 9 - 11 % and in 8 years have never sent any away over 14, but I do know of one grower who got caught out and had to leave the cut cane down because it was wet and got grown through - next years harvest was phenomenal though.

So when do you plant it and when do you harvest and how do you harvest? Is the seed drilled like everything else? I heard it came in plant pots and you plant it by hand but after that it just keeps growing every year?
 
So when do you plant it and when do you harvest and how do you harvest? Is the seed drilled like everything else? I heard it came in plant pots and you plant it by hand but after that it just keeps growing every year?

Planting time from now onwards for the next 6 or 8 weeks and the first harvest (only 30% of potential) will be in about 10 months time - thereafter annual harvests will increase in size over the next few years.

Not the only source of information but these guys do have a good few years experience under their belts -

http://www.terravesta.com/
 
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Best fuel for a boiler and if you keep it yourself it costs about the same as wheat straw but with the added benefit you need less, so less baling, less handling etc. I haven't got the figures to hand but 25ha would be enough to get you to Tier 1 on a 995 boiler.
 
1,307,430 kWh? That's 52,000 / ha

Have you allowed for the loss of income from grain sales in this!?

I'll have to check the figures as I don't have them here so am going from memory but iirc looking at terravesta's figures and talking to a few growers the figures were approx 12t/ha average yield once established and its burns at around 4250kwh/tonne but as said I need to check.

Grain sales loss ...... bit of a chicken egg thing. We'd put 25ha in on areas that basically doesn't yield grain well due to being close to rivers, woods etc. In all cases I've looked at if you get the muscanthus established then it will thrive in crap soils. We wouldn't be putting it on 10t/ha wheat ground put it that way. So you could throw in a bit of lost grain sales but the miscamthus straw is earning far more being burnt as you and I already know via wheat straw.

Iirc miscanthus is 25-30% more efficient than wheat straw which means 25-30% less baling costs, storage space, haulage etc. Obviously you've got the mowing cost to take into account although presently we are thinking forage harvest the miscanthus into a clamp and feed it bulk as long as we can get 200mm < chop length.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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