Future directions

Wood fuel - woodland management

Wood thinning is costly with few viable merits for the timber produced.  Yet woods need to be managed to encourage wildlife and game birds.  Wood is a low grade fuel compared to fossil fuels so transportation over anything but a short distance is not realistic. 

Consequently we have installed a fully automated wood fired heating plant which uses wood chips created from the thinnings.  Since we are planting more trees than we are burning makes the heating of the offices and meeting room effectively carbon neutral. 

For more information on our bio-mass boiler, please click here.

Carbon footprint - carbon sequestration

The increase in global temperatures blamed for causing climate change is said to be related to increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.  Farming is a unique industry that uses this carbon dioxide as one of its essential raw materials.  The carbon fixed through crop plant growth can be used as food or fuel. 

A significant portion of the plant biomass cannot be harvested or used be it stems, leaves or roots and these are returned to the soil, where they are advantageous to soil ecological processes, soil structure and biodiversity and beneficial to subsequent cropping.  Indeed soils are an important carbon link and by changing from intensive plough based cultivation systems to lighter surface based systems reduces the mineralisation of soil organic matter giving rise to increased soil carbon.

LINK Tramlines project

Reducing risks associated with Autumn wheeling of combinable crops.  In association with ADAS, Lancaster University, HGCA and other companies, a three year project to find out if tramline management can be an effective tool for controlling sediment loss from arable agriculture, following on from the Mitigation Options for Phosphorus and Sediment (MOPS) project.