Considering the carbon footprint and wider sustainability of on-farm buildings, storage sheds, workshops, barns, silage clamps and other buildings could pay dividends in terms of savings.
Ideas to make savings
Make sure machinery settings are optimised for the most efficient use, for example is machinery being left on standby unnecessarily?
Is all machinery kept in good condition and running on the optimum settings?
What is the source of energy for processing machinery and related processes – oil driers for example are very inefficient and could be replaced with biomass dryers.
Gantry feeding animals centrally in sheds with precision feeding technology can optimise and ensure feeds are right for each animal and standardise feed sizes to reduce costs.
Enterprise specific guidance
Pig buildings and housing design (BPEX)
The British pig industry has suffered from a lack of investment in buildings, mostly in nursery and grower/finisher accommodation. A consequence of this is poor pig performance on many pig units and this leads to an increased cost of production. The information from BPEX includes guides to building new pig accommodation, and webinars, hints and tips as to improving the efficiency of current housing.
Efficient Cattle Housing Design (EBLEX)
Good design will support good health and welfare to the financial benefit of the farm business. The target for most cattle buildings is to ensure a design that maximises ventilation potential on a still day, without exposing the livestock to elevated air speed when the wind is blowing. This booklet provided through EBLEX’s Better Returns Programme details aspects to consider when looking at efficient cattle buildings.
Efficient Poultry Housing
The main sources of energy use in poultry housing is heating, lighting and ventilation. The Poultry energy efficiency section of the Toolkit has lots more hints and tips on ways to cut energy consumption in poultry housing.
Efficient Potato Storage
Storage 2020 is an intiative which aims to make potato storage more cost effective, energy efficient and sustainable. The intiative which is a collaboration between the Potato Council, Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research Facility and the Farm Energy Centre assessed the quality of your potato store, how efficient it is and helps to ensure the optimum returns from storage. Find further information here.
HGCA’s Grain storage information
Safe, effective grain storage is key to assuring crop quality and helping prevent loss of premiums through claims and rejections. Access the guidance here.
