As with all crops, the success, failure and overall yield of biomass crops is dependent on the weather. That’s why we have weather stations and soil dataloggers recording climate and soil data at each of our demonstrator hubs
Over the past few months, as part of a small-scale study, a commercially planted Miscanthus crop at IBERS Aberystwyth, was cut, baled, stored, and used for livestock bedding.
The month of June has been another busy one at the Biomass Connect Demonstrator Hubs. Things have dried out so catching up with weeding, mowing and spraying has been possible at all sites. Sida, reed canary grass and switchgrass have been planted/sown in the perennial grasses demo plots. An SRF Italian poplar trial has been planted at the site in Ayrshire.
Most crops are growing well at the Boghall Demonstrator Hub. Some plots have a weed burden. Inter-row mowing and spraying is planned for July.
Most things are growing well, including the weeds. June has been a busy month which included a visit from the Rothamsted Research team to plant the sida plug plants and the Italian SRF poplar plot
Most crops are now growing well at the Headley Hall Demonstrator Hub.
Things are finally drying out at North Wyke with the warm but not unseasonable weather. It has been dry, the ground is now hard and we’ve been able to access the site with machinery to cut the long grass.
Biomass Connect with Newcastle University hosted a demonstration event at the Cockle Park Farm Demonstrator Hub, Newcastle University. The event included a combination of talks, a field tour to the Biomass Connect demonstration hub, and roundtable discussions.
As part of the ongoing campaign to raise awareness of the Biomass Feedstock Innovation (BFI) programme and provide opportunities to help develop the biomass sector, we organised a large marquee at Groundswell to bring the Biomass Connect Knowledge Exchange hub team together with five projects from the BFI programme.
Part of our ongoing series looking at birds in and around willow and Miscanthus crops in Devon and Somerset. The films feature ornithologist and wildlife detective Ed Drewitt (along with BC team member Kevin Lindegaard of Crops for Energy).