Farm energy in changed times

I follow refining margins and have subscriptions to sites that give the live commodity pricing of various distillates.

As most diesel for Ireland is currently coming from Finland and other Scandinavian countries, it does take 4-5 days to start feeding into pricing here.

Further drops in refining margins and oil prices today will see even further reductions towards the end of next week.

In the middle east there are over 400 oil carrying tankers ready to leave. They have a mix of crude oil and refined distillates - mostly heavy fuels like diesel, kerosene and jet fuel.

Once that starts to get released prices will plummet - question is when this will happen rather than if.

So I would not be buying any large quantities just yet.

I have a barrel of water here. If I could get my hands on some enriched uranium and put it into it to make steam. I could use it to power my engine. Just need to keep the water topped up.

they should be a little key on the side of the tractor and you winde it up to tension up a spring and work away then for the day !

I usually post on the home heat thread.

Its a pity organisations like the IFA or ITGA don't put some effort into understanding how prices move. Its relatively easy and a website banner or a weekly email would be of immense help especially when there is volatility. They do it in Portugal

The only elements that change frequently are - Oil Price, Refining price and Exchange rate. Oil price change takes about 7-10 days to feed in whereas refining price change takes 4-5 days to feed in. On Feb 21st, the refining margin for diesel was $22 per barrel (159 litres), it gradually increased that week to $35 just before trump started his war and then went higher and higher. On April 2nd this had hit a high of $93 - approx 39c (euro) difference from Feb 21st. Exchange rate was $1.15

Add oil price change from $68 to $114, that's 24c (euro). Total 63c price increase excl vat from end Feb to early April.

Oil is now hovering at $95 today, refining is at $55, exchange rate is 1.17. About 35c higher than Feb but 28c lower than the peak last week. Forecourts didn't represent the full peak, hence I reckon about 20-25c drop (ex vat) and excluding any duty reductions. This will happen over the next week or so (likely in 3 movements)

I applied for the solar, but hydro is what would be perfect, there is a stream actually within a few metres of the milking parlour.

Ireland is made for hydro you would think

On the hydro it's all about force. You would run a very simple system if you had enough of a head of water and a 2inch pipe. That would eliminate planning issues. A full 4 inch pipe would need 1/4 of the head of water

Anyone buy the panels and fit themselves? Fella was telling me they are as cheap as a sheet of marine ply now. I'd be fitting to a corrugated roof so no bollixing lifting slates etc.

Had a young lad working for me before n almost qualified as a spark now who could wire in for me.