The owners of Ystym Colwyn Farms wanted to create a low carbon farming system that was good for both the business and the plant. The family-run farm consists of cattle, sheep and poultry, with 325,000 birds across six sheds.
Brothers Ed and James decided to use biomass boilers to provide top heating to the chicken sheds, and a ground source heating system to provide underfloor heating. Ed said: “For some time, we’ve been figuring out how we can make our farm more efficient in a way that helps with the bottom line and is more environmentally friendly. It is great that we are now in a position where it is benefitting the farm and can support the UK with its low carbon targets.”
In addition to the poultry shed heating system, the farm installed an on-farm AD plant which is powered by the farm by-products. All the electricity needed to run the farm is produced from the plant, and a sizeable portion is then sold to the grid. Eventually the system won the Low Carbon Farming Pioneer Award in the Royal Welsh Show M&S Select Farm Awards 2022.
Due to issues with stones and other foreign matter that comes with using feedstock from a farmyard, they needed a feed system that could mill the feedstock well before it went into the digester but also protect the machinery and pipework from stone damage.
The plant was built with Vogelsang’s PreMix 4-in-one feed system, which chops, mashes, mixes and pumps the feedstock whilst also preventing foreign matter from getting any further. Ed Gittins, owner, said: “When Frenergy designed our AD plant, they specified Vogelsang’s solid matter feed system - which includes the PreMix and BIGMix hopper by Konrad Pumpe.
“This feed system has been excellent for us. The equipment is strong and works hard, particularly as we have a varied feedstock and can’t guarantee it is free from stones and other foreign matter. When this happens, the debris removal system separates these, so they don’t make their way into the pumps and damage them,” concluded Ed.
Learn more about the PreMix