Biomass Connect Webinar No. 12
March 27 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Harvesting your crop, everything you need to know
The who, what, when, and how of harvesting. Of course, there is a theoretical optimum time to harvest your crop, but our maritime climate often puts a spanner in the works. This webinar will provide some insight into getting the best from your plantation – maximising yield, reducing cost, optimising your storage protocol, reducing impact on the soil and your surroundings. Also, there will be an opportunity to ask the experts for their tips and Plan Bs for when the weather throws you a curve ball.
Our Speakers will be Jamie Rickerby, Willow Energy and Tim Russon of P Russon & Sons Agricultural Contractors (TBC)
Speakers:
Jamie Rickerby: Willow Energy
Jamie Rickerby
Jamie has always been interested in farm machinery – with his 140-year-old family business being the main Claas dealer in the north west. For the last 10 years Jamie has run Willow Energy and accumulated an enormous amount of experience as a planting and harvesting contractor of Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) willow. In this time the company has planted 779 hectares and harvested 5,500 hectares of SRC with a total biomass output of 225,000 tonnes.
SRC contracting is not an easy occupation. Most of the machinery was not designed for the UK’s maritime climate and Jamie has accumulated a wealth of knowledge on what works and what doesn’t. Jamie is currently leading the BEIS funded Net Zero Willow project, which aims to construct, test and develop to full commercial deployment three innovations that will enable the rapid scaling up of the UK biomass supply chain. The proposed machines will facilitate the efficient multiplication, planting and harvesting of SRC willow crops through include increased automation, reduced handling and lighter machinery that result in a lower environmental footprint.
Willow Energy works in partnership with the Iggesund paperboard mill for whom they provide contract planting, maintenance and harvesting services. In the last five years WE has begun multiplying SRC willow varieties on license with Rothamsted Research.
Jamie is passionate about agriculture and the countryside. With advancements in technology, there is a huge potential to make British agriculture more efficient and sustainable for future generations. With the advent of artificial intelligence technologies, farmers will be able to tend to individual plants rather than fields of crop. The ability to tend individual plants will increase productivity per hectare and free up land to be used for biodiversity and energy production through parental energy crops. Jamie is excited to have been funded through the BEIS Biomass feedstock innovation program to develop artificial intelligence technology which will help scale up the production planting and harvesting of SRC willow throughout the UK and beyond.
Tim Russon: P Russon & Sons Agricultural Contractors (TBC)
Tim Prusson
In 1986, Tim attended Riseholme College in Lincoln, leaving in 1989, to return to the family dairy farm in Burton, Lincoln. It was at this point Tim decided to adopt a different career path. His father had already started taking on agricultural contracting work, which enabled Tim to do likewise.
Today the company’s main business is in providing a contracting service to farmers and landowners throughout Lincolnshire and the surrounding counties. Although a wide range of services are now offered, including muckspreading, drilling, combining, baling and spraying, the main focus remains a complete forage operation, from sowing to clamping. This is rapidly expanding with the advent of anaerobic digestion plants in the region.
He has been harvesting miscanthus since 2006, where he started off with one customer, covering approx. 100 acres, around Lincoln. He now harvests approx. 4,000 acres each year, stretching from Suffolk to Yorkshire, along the east side of the country. His choice of machines are two modified Claas Jaguar forage harvesters, which he already uses in other areas of the business, throughout the remainder of the year.