Oilseed Rape/Miscanthus/Willow

Heraldoffreeent

Hi Guys, this is my first post on this forum and to be honest I only found it today and think its a great idea to have a place to discuss farming and farm related issues.

My situation is this:have a career ad live in Dublin but own about 50 acres and a house down the west.Currantly the land is rented to a local farmeras you can imagine the rental income is very low compared to the value of the land.

At the moment I am looking for some alternative uses for the land.I suppose my criteria would be that the enterprise be profitable and low maintanance and involve minimal work(not coz I'm work shy, but because of the distance and the fact that my day job is pretty intensive and involving as it is).

With this n mind I've been thinking about a number of options that might suit

1/Telecom mast,profitable,low maintanance, but likely to cause some local friction
2/ wind farm,possibly some of the above and also the farm is in a lowland area so not sure its a runner
3/ Forestry, the only option that would suit would be the coillte managed afforestation and I'm not keen to be contracted to them for 25/30 years
4/Miscanthus, seems pretty low maintainance once the initial planting is done and can be cut like silage once a year. However, lack of Govt stratagy and a market for the crop means its difficult to project a return on the initial investment which i reckon would be around 40k
5/oilseed rape:ditto
6/willow:ditto
7/Sites, yes there are some potential sites on te land, but I'm a little too attached to want to gothis route at the moment.

I'm just wondering if any of the posters on here have seriously looked the wind or alternative energy sources and can point me in the direction of some links that provide some sort of definitive guide?

Thanks in advance...............
5/si

Fanny Cradock

I think in the next decade you’ll start to see a burgeoning market for alternative energy sources such as willow and miscanthus. Biofuels are slowly registering with the puplic. Getting in there early may mean that you could clean up. I’d suggest talking to the private forestry operators/ contractors, e.g. Green Belt, PTR etc., about crops (i.e. willow) for biomass production. I’m unsure who you would talk to about miscanthus, but I would think that any company (forestry or otherwise) dealing in crops for energy production would be able to point you in the right direction.
I wouldn’t rule out forestry all together; again, private companies like Green Belt (I don’t work for them, btw) will offer to look after initial establishment and the early stages (4 years in total) - after that, you decide how much or little you would like the company to maintain your forest.

Wind will eith work or it wont. Like above, you will need to get some sort of land assesment to determine the suitability of the land to any venture. Good luck!

The_Conductor

There are a few discussions going on at the moment in relation to natural fibres (hemp and flax). The big problem here has been that there is no certified processor in the country- but it is quite possible that this may change in the very near future. Processing aid looks likely to continue (its possible that some of the Ernest and Young recommendations to the Commission may be acted on- particularly in relation to the differing aid levels for the different types of fibre produced).

Re: Forestry- you are not necessarily signing up for a 35-40 year contrat with Coillte (or any of the other forestry groups). Western Forestry Coop will plant your forestry for you and do an initial thinning in some cases simply claiming grant aid- at no outlay to you. There may be nothing beyond this initial contract- and a good forestry management plan will detail precisely what work is required and when. You do need planning permission for forestry above a certain acreage though (check current planning regulations for more info).

Heraldoffreeent

Thanks for the help lads,I must admit the Miscanthus idea appeals to me for various reasons, mainly because it is the nearest to "proper" farming and I suppose i still have a "field" mentality!

Has anyone been to any of the teagasc presentations on Misc?

I know that there was an open day, in carlow i think, during the summer, did anyone go?

nilhg

IFA Skillnet and Sei are holding a conference " Bio-Energy crops - Producing for profit " on Monday next in Portlaiose with loads of speakers who will be of interest top anybody thinking of getting into energy crops.

tomaxcars

Hi folks,

You might check out the Green Energy Growers Association http://www.gega.ie/ - they are helping groups of farmers to understand not only the energy crops but also the growing market and how to ensure an equitable return from the crops.

Gega is a non-profit organisation. I know about them because I have been helping them with their technology requirements.

Thanks.

Andrew.

road_high

These energy crops seem to be all the rage at the moment but looking at OSR from a farmers growing point of view the profitability doesn't look convincing at all. The research is still in its infancy here in Ireland and we need to get the varieties more in line with our conditions. The margin between making a loss and making a profit on OSR seems to be very tight indeed (as with all cereals really). Good husbandry i.e. correct sowing date and seed numbers eem to be critical issuesf or this crop too.

Heraldoffreeent

It'll be interesting to see what the establishment grants will be for willow and Misc

Capt'n Midnight

One option to look at is to sell up to half the land and invest most of the proceeds. This gives you security and the chance to buy it back if there is a downturn. And probably a higher income than the land itself would. Alternatively buy a farm somewhere where land and flights to it are cheap.

sell it on ebay to the americans so they can own a piece of the "aul sod" a - square foot at a time

Don't forget the glut of mushrooms when milley and biddy started growing them on telly. And can you afford to take a major hit if the bottom falls out of the fuel crop market or whatever you do.


Out of curiousity how does the rental income compare to set aside ?

CathyMoran

Not sure if it was mentioned here- the extra 80 Euro/ha that was allocated in the budget (to go with the 45 Euro from the EU- 125 Euro/ha in total). Not sure what establishment costs are- and its my understanding that the additional grant is towards machinery costs?

fastrac

the new reps plan is due out soon so have a good look at that first