Yorkshire farmers get boost to help save money and carbon
Eight farms received a boost to their environmental performance recently when a total of 89,000 was awarded to help them run more efficiently. The farms received their funding from the Rural Development Programme for England.
The money will be spent on new equipment for the farms, including heat exchange units, rain water harvesting and slurry separation and application kit. The funding will help farms use less fuel and run more efficiently.
David Sykes, from New Dunsley Farm, in Holmfirth, received 12,000 for a new heat exchanger on his poultry farm. The heat exchanger pulls old, stale air from the chicken shed and extracts the waste heat it contains. This captured energy is used to heat clean, fresh air as it is pumped back in to the shed. This not only saves money on the propane that was previously used to heat the shed, but also improves the health of the birds. David said, The new heat system has been a great success, both saving the farm money and making the livestock healthier. Its been great to be able to install the new heating as part of the redevelopment of the sheds, we would not have been able to do this without this financial help.
New Dunsley Farm received this grant through the Farm Resource Efficiency Programme, delivered by CO2Sense. Over the last year, funding like this has helped farms to save over 100,000 and 245 tonnes of CO2.This programme offers grants to farmers to improve the overall economic performance of their holdings through the introduction of new technology to promote energy, manure and water efficiency.
CO2Sense is a not for profit organisation that helps the low carbon sector to grow, and all businesses, including farms, to save money and carbon by becoming more efficient.
Vicky Wren, CO2Sense Project Manager, said Farmers can make important savings by implementing some simple measures. We are continuing this support with more funding opportunities and information about farming more efficiently in the pipeline.
More funding will be available in the coming months for farm based projects. Those interested should email Vicky Wren on Vicky.wren@co2sense.org.uk or call 0113 237 8461.
The Rural Development Programme for England is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union (The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas) and managed by Yorkshire Forward.
CO2Sense is a not-for-profit business development programme, which helps businesses in Yorkshire and Humber to succeed in the low-carbon economy
It is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward
It is funded by Yorkshire Forward and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
It has four programmes:
Resource Efficiency, which helps businesses to use fewer resources and helps businesses in the environmental sector to grow
Carbon Reduction, which helps the regions largest businesses to adapt their business plans to a changing environment and to prosper in the low-carbon environment
Renewable Energy, which helps businesses to find sources of low-carbon energy and helps generators of low-carbon energy to sell their energy
Carbon Capture and Storage, which encourages industry and investors to develop CCS infrastructure in the region
For more details, visit www.co2sense.org.uk
The Farm Resource Efficiency Programme helps farmers to improve the overall economic performance of their holdings through the introduction of new technology to promote energy, manure and water resource efficiency.
The funding came from the Rural Development Programme for England, with support from the EU and Yorkshire forward.