no more straw?

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sybilstoute

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I ve just been to a conference on biomass fuel and the government are planning to take most of the straw in the UK (7.2 million tons)by 2015 and the predicted price for straw will be around £15 per bale, I guess the price of shavings will also increase, time to find an alternative?
 
Yes ,powerstations are certainly having an increasing effect on straw prices. However ,at the moment ,a lot of straw is chopped and incorporated back into the soil.This could be baled and sold for fuel. I think there will always be straw for bedding,but it may not be quite as cheap as you would like.The BIG problem is that straw is supplied to powerstations on six year contracts and in a bad year when tonnages are down.There may not be enough spare, after meeting the contractual obligations.
 
I'm intrigued why the Govt has chosen straw to be its favoured source of biomass? There are a lot of other possibilities, ie food waste, garden waste and so on. Our garden/green waste is collected by the Council and sold/supplied to a local farmer who uses it, though what for I don't know (compost/fertiliser I think...) so it is possible to get it collected and recycled.
 
chestnut cob said:
I'm intrigued why the Govt has chosen straw to be its favoured source of biomass? .
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because there are millions of tonnes of a renewable resource with a very low carbon footprint just being ploughed in at the moment . Also it gives a valuable incomme to the farming sector.
 
I think eventually it will be a win win situation for the farmers, the message at the conference was oil and its derivatives bad, plants and their derivatives (packaging, bottles, medicine etc) good! In the future will farmers grow crops to supply energy and industry rather than for agriculture and food? Interesting times and will it increase the cost and the way we keep horses as more land is needed for industry. The government have a target of 20% energy from biomass by 2020 or pay an EU fine!
 
Last winter I was paying £20 a bale -large hesston bale -of indifferent quality straw. This year I have lovely golden clean dry barley straw for £1.25 a small pick up bale. lovely stuff. There will always be straw to be had I would have thought.
 
Depends what straw!

Barley? Wheat? Oat? Oil seed rape?

Barley straw was £20 a 4x4 bale around here last year. Chopping straw and ploughing it back in is not a waste as straw contains valuable nutrients.

But straw is expensive to transport so, yes, it might be economical to use it for power generation in some areas but not where it can be fed to livestock.
 
Mike007 said:
because there are millions of tonnes of a renewable resource with a very low carbon footprint just being ploughed in at the moment . Also it gives a valuable incomme to the farming sector.
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?????? Not sure on the calculations there, what about all the fossil fuel burnt to make fertliser that has to be bought to replace the Potash lost by not ploughing straw back in.
 
I think the main thrust from the governmental representative at the conference was that the UK had a target to hit and a fine to pay if it didn't nmanage to hit it, I don't think economics came into the equation at all, and though we are now in recession the plans for straw burning were in place some time previous. The forecast of £20 per bale was for the small kind!!
 
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