News

Scotland experienced some well-documented extreme weather at the beginning of the year with both of our SRUC demonstrator hubs suffering from Storm Henk and Isha. Despite the damage there are now signs of hope in most plots and work has commenced with spraying and planning for 2024.

Scotland experienced some well-documented extreme weather at the beginning of the year with both of our SRUC demonstrator hubs suffering from Storm Henk and Isha. Despite the damage there are now signs of hope in most plots and work has commenced with spraying and planning for 2024.

As with many of the other demonstrator hubs, the BGI site in Chesham has experienced some heavy frosts with temperatures dropping to -6ºC some nights. It has also seen several named storms over the winter which damaged some of the crops. The early part of 2024 was then very wet which has limited the amount of work that could be carried out at the site as access to the plots was limited due to the ground conditions.

The Headley Hall site has experienced some high winds over the winter, along with very wet conditions similar to those experienced at other demonstrator hubs. Generally things have been looking good during these dormant months and signs of Spring are now starting to become evident within some of the crops.

The winter at Cockle Park Farm has been a very wet one with the occasional cold snap and frosts. Most things seem to be coping well with these frosts. General maintenance has been the order of the day during the dormant period with regular checks of the fencing and updates to the electric fence batteries. No spraying has been carried out and the ground has been too wet throughout for any machinery. The headlands have been sown with a grass/clover mix.

Generally across the North Wyke site things have been looking healthy whilst dormant over the winter. Conditions have been very wet except during cold snaps when it has been below freezing. Given the cold conditions, it could be likely that some of the less hardy varieties may not have survived.

The recent Low Carbon Agriculture Event held at Stoneleigh, was a busy and fruitful two days for enthusiasts and practitioners in biomass production. Attendees found the Biomass Connect stand to be a hub of technical knowledge, courtesy of the dedicated Biomass Connect knowledge exchange team.

Date: February 22nd, 2024 Location: Western Bio Energy Plant, Port Talbot A cohort of industry stakeholders from Wales and England, comprising potential growers, consultants, farming union representatives, researchers, plant breeders, […]

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) workshop, organised by the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), convened various stakeholders from industry, government bodies, DOE national laboratories, academia, and more. Its focus was on devising a research strategy for cultivating purpose-grown biomass energy crops at a large scale to supply feedstocks for biofuels and bioproducts.