Case Studies

The Ryes

The Ryes is a 110 hectare dairy farm, farmed by Wesley Millar. The Ryes is home to around 100 dairy cows and up to 70 followers at any one time. During the winter the cows are housed on slats from early winter to early spring.

The slurry is pumped directly from the slats to an 84m 3 reception tank. This is done once a week, and is mixed regularly during the day to prevent any settling out within the tank.   The raw slurry is fed to the 250m 3 digester hourly. The digested slurry is discharged into a 1,000m 3 slurry store before application to the land.

The biggest benefit of the biogas plant to Mr Millar has been the reduced requirement of mineral fertilisers to only a quarter of that used prior to anaerobic digestion.   The surplus biogas is used in a Rayburn in the farmhouse kitchen for cooking and heating. A biogas boiler is also used to heat hot water for the farmhouse central heating.

New Farm

New Farm is a 120 hectare dairy farm, farmed by Frank Kenyon who has an average dairy herd of 160 cows which are housed on slats from early autumn to early spring.

The slurry is pumped from the slats into a 115m 3 reception tank weekly. This is mixed frequently and fed to the digester on a regular basis. The digester has a volume of 320m 3 with a slurry store of 1,100m 3 allowing for approximately three months slurry storage. The large storage capacity allows the farmers to spread the slurry at beneficial times to the crop, making best use of the nutrients.

New Farm has installed an electricity generator which will run on a mixture of surplus biogas and diesel. This will produce electricity for use on the farm, and the power to heat the digester.