Archive Article: 1997/10/18
BIOMASS POWER
A POWER station fuelled by biomass crops is being built by the German Ministry of Energy and the regional government of Bavaria. The investment is worth £8.5m. Over 100 farmers are already asking to sign-up as suppliers for the planned 45 megawatt station, with biomass crops such as miscanthus (elephant grass), dried and rough grass, straw, forestry thinnings and wholecrop grain grown on set aside.
A private company is carrying most of the investment costs for the power station which is situated near the Austrian border and is planned to link-up with the grid in spring 1999.
The new firing technique is designed to efficiently burn several types of biomass fuel at the same time and without the chopping, drying and sometimes cubing which is required in current conventional biomass burners.
Other farmers, organised into grower groups specialising in producing particular biomass fuels, are expected to join the supply force for the power station as it gets into stride in the first year of operation.
LOOKING for a combinable break crop which yields well in acid soil conditions, requires only 50kgN/ha, and returned a gross margin last year in northern France of around £630/ha (£255/acre)?
Buckwheat could be the answer. Frances leading dealers in the nutritious grain, the Breton cooperative Euro-Breizh, collects and sells sarrasin buckwheat as the basic ingredient in the regions deservedly famous galettes bretones or crepes. On the face of it, this crop – no relative of wheat despite its name, but rather a distant cousin of the rhubarb plant – is a poor yielder.
LAST year on the granite-based soils of the Brittany coast, between 1.5 and 2.5t/ha (12cwt and 1t/acre) was combined. But ex-farm prices averaged the equivalent of £245/t and seed and fertiliser costs are believed at just £60/ha (£24/acre). On top of this, the tough, disease resistant crop rarely needs any chemical help to survive against disease.
The markets there for buckwheat, too: France alone has to import some 80% of its requirements every year. Most of this comes from China. The Breizh co-op points out that buckwheat can be a valuable break crop in a combining rotation.
The crop doesnt like frost – with sowing at the end of May and harvesting the beginning of October in northern France. The late drilling date has led to Breton farmers often resowing with buckwheat after frost-damaged oats has had to be ploughed in.
Exchange: o1 = FF10.21
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"19" From: FoodFarm@aol.com at INTERNET 4/10/97 5:02 (12006 bytes: 299 ln)
To: Debbie Beaton at RBPQHSPC03
Subject: Letter from Germany (October)
—————- Message Contents —————-
The German Ministry of Energy and the regional government of Bavaria are between
them to invest the equivalent of o8.5 million in a new power station fuelled by
biomass only. It is estimated that over 100 farmers are already asking to
sign-up as suppliers for the planned 45 megawatt station, with biomass crops
such as miscanthus (elephant grass), dried and rough grass, straw, forestry
thinnings and wholecrop grain grown on set-aside.
A private company is carrying most of the investment costs for the power
station which is situated near the Austrian border and is planned to link-up
with the grid in spring 1999. Completely new is the firing technique, designed
to efficiently burn several types of biomass fuel at the same time and without
the cost-intensive chopping, drying and sometimes even cubing which is required
in current conventional biomass burners.
Other farmers, organised into grower groups specialising in producing
particular biomass fuels, are expected to join the supply force for the power
station as it gets into stride in the first year of operation.
………………………………………..
Average price for freehold farmland in Germany last year dropped by 4.5%
compared with 1995 to the equivalent of o7,010* per hectare (o837/acres). The drop
hides a huge difference between the land price situation in what was once West
Germany and in the former communist lands to the east of the country.
In the west, theres still a drop in demand for land – about 1% annually over
the last years – but the price per hectare in 1996 was just o12 short of
o11,000/ha (o4,445/acres). Land prices in the east last year ended-up more than
four times less: at an average o2,620/ha (o1,060/acres) and 8% down on the year.
Prices in the west, where traditionally farmland is kept in the family and
rented out rather than sold, have remained fairly stable for 10 years now,
according to the Ministry of Agriculture. The overall German farmland price drop
is caused by oversupply in the eastern land market where more land is up for
sale. The main reason is that families which have long left the industry have
now won back land confiscated by the earlier communist regime and are promptly
getting rid of it.
The German region with the highest average farmland price is traditionally
the small-farm state of Bavaria. Here, farmland prices have actually dropped by
nearly 10% between 1995 and 1996, but the average price is still at a high
o17,651/ha or o7,143/acres.
Exchange: o1 = DM 2.90
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The number of biodiesel (RME) filling stations in Germany has now topped the 700
mark and some regions are changing the publically-owned country bus fleets over
to the natural oilseed fuel.
One such region is the Rhineland Palatinate in the south west of the country
where so far the equivalent of o1 million has been spent by regional government
in the promotion and development of the natural fuel for private as well as
public vehicle fleets. A new biodiesel-fuelled bus fleet there is to run through
the wine growing region in the Moselle valley near Koblenz. Rhineland Palatinate
now has a total of 15 biodiesel filling stations throughout the region.
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Hybrinovas Hyno-Pr,cia hybrid wheat beat conventional varieties by more than
12% yield in three separate French regions during the 1997 harvest. When yields
were measured in trials against top bread wheats, the Pr,cia type scored 113.3%
of average in Poitou, 112.4% compared with early wheats in the north of the
country and 112% in the central region. Top average yield in official French
trials this harvest for the hybrid line was 10.5t/ha or 4.25t/acres.
Over three years of trials, Hyno-Pr,cia has established a yield superiority
over conventional quality bread wheat types of 8% with an overall average yield
of 9.4t/ha (3.8t/acres). For two years running the best yield for Pr,cia has been
13t/ha (5.26t/acres) recorded in the Picardy region.
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A swing to producing more home-grown forage and protein for livestock in France
saw the amount of silage maize grown increased by 10% on the year for 1997.
While the areas down to feed cereals remained reasonably stable compared with
the previous year, feed protein legume production soared by 12.5% to an
estimated 2,922 million tonnes in 1997. Some of this rise was caused by a
general increase in pea and bean yields with crops averaging 4.86t/ha (1.97t/acres)
compared with 4.79t/ha (1.94t/acres) in 1996. Dominant legume remains combining
peas with an estimated harvest of 2,876 m t.
More feed protein is also coming from soyabeans grown in France this harvest
with 270,000 t expected this year compared with the 1996 harvest of 230,000 t.
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Frances largest hybrid wheat breeders, Hybrinova with 7,000ha (17,300acres) down
to four different hybrid types in 1996 representing 60% of the entire hybrid
market, reckons it will double this area by the time the 1997 sowing is
completed. Top seller of all the Hybrinova lines in 1996/97 year was
Hyno-Pr,cia, sown on over
5,000ha (12,355acres).
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The number of Spanish farm businesses has dropped by 7.6% between 1993 and
1995, according to the Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid. Current total of
mostly family farms is now around 1.3 million. Whereas the average size of unit
in 1993 was 17.85ha (44acres), this had risen to 19.74ha (48.7acres) by the end of
1995. Market watchers say the trend to less and larger farms is speeding up now,
not least because of heavy financial losses caused by flooding in 1996 and
extreme drought in some areas this year.
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The Russian wheat harvest has been safely brought-in from at least 92% of the
state-owned cereal farms by the first week of September this year. Overall
cereal yield for the country has been estimated at 67.5 m t, an increase of some
16% on the previous year on the previous year. The 1996 harvest was reckoned to
have averaged only 1.67t/ha (14cwt/acres) whilst this year the average return
cleaned and dried per hectare has been estimated at a shovelful short of 2t/ha
or 16 cwt/acres.
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Looking for a combinable break crop which yields well in acid soil conditions,
requires only 50 kg nitrogen per hectare, and returned a gross margin last year
in northern France of around o630*/ha (o255/acres)?
Buckwheat could be the answer. Frances leading dealers in the nutritious
grain, the Breton cooperative Euro-Breizh, collects and sells sarrasin
buckwheat as the basic ingredient in the regions deservedly famous galettes
bretones or crepes. On the face of it, this crop – no relative of wheat despite
its name, but rather a distant cousin of the rhubarb plant – is a poor yielder.
Last year on the granite-based soils of the Brittany coast, between 1.5 and
2.5t per hectare (12cwt and 1t/acres) was combined. But price ex-farm averaged the
equivalent of o245/t and seed and fertiliser costs are reckoned at just o60/ha
(o24/acres). On top of this, the tough, disease resistant crop rarely needs any
chemical help to survive against diseases.
The markets there for buckwheat, too: France alone has to import some 80% of
its requirements every year. Most of this comes from China. The Breizh coop
points out that buckwheat can be a valuable break crop in a combining rotation.
The crop doesnt like frost – with sowing at the end of May and harvesting the
beginning of October in northern France. The late drilling date has led to
Breton farmers often resowing with buckwheat after frost-damaged oats has had to
be ploughed in.
Exchange: o1 = FF10.21
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