Miscanthus — a hot product for farmers or just a load of hot air?
However, after grant aid of more than €4m since 2007, there doesn’t seem to be a significant market outlet for much of their 6,000 acres.
In some cases, farmers are wondering if the crop is even worth harvesting.
One organisation that has invested in the potential of miscanthus in an innovative way is the North Tipperary LEADER partnership (NTLP). Under the farm diversification measure of the Rural Development Programme 2007-13, farmer Sean Gaynor and businessman Kevin Finn received support from NTLP for turning their miscanthus into a low-ash, carbon-neutral and Irish-produced eco-briquette.
Local farmers are supplying Gaynor and Finn. So a missing link between farm and consumer has been bridged.
The question remains: will we see more of this sort of innovative action, and soon?
* Tell me about your miscanthus growing and business Sean.
>> My own farm is in Rapha, near Nenagh in Tipperary. It’s 170 acres, 20 of which are in miscanthus. The rest is tillage and grass. My partner Padraig Doheny also has 20 acres of miscanthus.
Last year, our yield was under four tonnes an acre, this year it’ll be more like five. It does well in the hot weather. Miscanthus is planted once, it regenerates without being replanted, doesn’t need fertiliser, and is sprayed once a year.
Now my 20 acres will yield 100 tonnes of miscanthus, as will Padraig’s, so we will have 200 tonnes. We add in 60% wood, including sawdust from a local joinery, then this becomes 500 tonnes. We also buy miscanthus in from five or six other local farmers.
* How did you end up selling your miscanthus Ecobriqs?
>>About 10 years ago when we were selling biomass heating systems through our company, Evergreen Energy, there was no-one supplying the fuel locally. We had a boiler that could take miscanthus directly as a chip. We changed over to briquettes, as you can sell briquettes to anyone, transporting miscanthus chip is very difficult. Otherwise you’d have to sell people specific boilers.
* What supports did you receive?
>>We got 50% of the planting cost back under the original government grants. 75% in year one, and 25% in year two. Specifically for us, we got great support locally from LEADER, the North Tipperary LEADER Partnership here. They help us with our briquette machine, packaging machine, including the stretch wrapper, and a chopping machine to chop bales of miscanthus.
* There have been some well documented issues with miscanthus.
>> Some of it may have been planted on poor soil. It needs a clay soil. We took 15 acres out of production here because we didn’t feel the soil was good enough. The margins are certainly low with the electricity stations. Because we grow and produce the briquettes, it’s more worth our while economically.
Last year there was also a moisture issue, it was harvested wet, this contributed to a storage problem. But you can bale it and it will store on the bale. It’s easy to dry compared to willow, and is meant to dry naturally standing. You can’t cut if it’s too wet. We have no problems with transport, as it’s all on our own farms or local farms. The crop can only be harvested when the leaves have fallen off, as they contain chlorine which is corrosive to the heating appliance.
*Take me through the process:
>> When the leaves fall off in autumn, the energy in the plant goes into the root rhizomes. Leaves also rot into the ground, where they provide P and K and, sometimes also act as a ground cover weed suppressant. When we harvest in spring, mid-March to mid-April, it’s like a bamboo stick. There’s no waste. We use a standard silage harvester for cutting the crop with a mower, also a maize harvester can be used, no need to pre-cut with a mower.
The miscanthus is put into storage, taken out and mixed with wood, into a hammer mill to break it down, then into a dryer. It’s dried with wood energy, so it remains carbon-neutral, and is taken down to 10% moisture. It’s then transported over to the briquette machine, where they are made. They are then packed, shrink-wrapped in plastic to protect them from moisture, and placed onto the strapping machine. Finally, they are placed on a pallet and stretch-wrapped.
n How do you sell the finished product?
>>We are supplying to Mitchell’s Ecofuels in Galway, who then distribute to major retailers nationwide. Then there’s the Dairygold Co-op stores in the Munster region. We supply shops locally in Nenagh, Limerick, Roscrea, Thurles, Cloughjordan and Templemore. Fuel merchants also go door-to-door, while we do direct sales from here in Rapha.
* Is it, or will it be profitable?
>>It’s only starting to be now, but it’s looking good at the moment for a farm enterprise. Of course, people don’t buy them as much in the summer. There are three of us directly involved, and others indirectly make some money from the Ecobriqs too. As volumes grow, we can dilute our fixed costs which will improve our profitability.
For local farmers, we pay €60 a tonne for 20% moisture, so that’s €5 a tonne above average. We also take in bales from others on demand, and chop them.
* Is there export potential?
>>Probably not, we’re paying for all the raw materials, in Europe, briquettes are made from waste sawdust, so they are cheap.
