Dairy Collect
Project Now Closed - Dairy Collect was an Objective One ...
DW & RJ Warren - Denis & Rosemary Warren farm at Tred...
Cornish Farmer recieves over ?17,000 in European funding - A Cornish Farm in Washaway, near Wadebri...
Barlendew Farm, Bodmin - Jamie Blake farms 230 acres in partnersh...
A.T. Rapson & Son, Carnebone Farm, Laity - Mark, in partnership with his wife Jenny...
DW & RJ Warren - Denis & Rosemary Warren farm at Tred...
Cornish Farmer recieves over ?17,000 in European funding - A Cornish Farm in Washaway, near Wadebri...
Barlendew Farm, Bodmin - Jamie Blake farms 230 acres in partnersh...
A.T. Rapson & Son, Carnebone Farm, Laity - Mark, in partnership with his wife Jenny...
A.T. Rapson & Son, Carnebone Farm, Laity
Mark, in partnership with his wife Jenny, run a small family farm with a herd of 50 Holstein Friesian cows and youngstock. The Rapson’s applied to Dairy Collect to erect a wind turbine as a demonstration unit in relation to innovation and energy efficiency.
Having secured planning consent and with 20% intervention received from Dairy Collect a 15,000kW turbine was purchased and installed in June 2006. It is predicted to generate 52,000 kW of electricity per year which constitutes twice the farms energy requirements. The remaining 26,000kW will be sold (hence the halved intervention rate). The vast majority of energy used on the unit is in the dairy to power the bulk tank and associated equipment.
Since completion there have been a few technical problems with the 15,000kW model still being a prototype. The turbine is now working at half capacity with the provider compensating the Rapson’s for the short fall. The turbine, following adjustments, produces no detectable noise and its safety cut offs mean that if the mains electricity fails, the turbine is stopped so the electricity produced by it cannot hard anyone mending the lines.
Since its installation the turbine has produced c9500kW hrs. Of this 5345kW hrs has been sold to earn £454 with the remained used on farm saving £436. This is less than the £2,210 income and £2,730 projected but there has been down time incurred. It is hoped this will be realised next year when the turbine will be back operating at full capacity.
Total project cost £46,451
Dairy Collect Contribution £9,290
Barlendew Farm, Bodmin
Jamie Blake farms 230 acres in partnership with his wife Caroline. They milk a herd of 160 Holstein Friesian cows at the home farm which is rented from Cornwall County Council.
The Blake’s applied to Dairy Collect for support to improve the on farm storage of milk. The two existing bulk tanks had capacity to hold only 4,200 litres of milk and the herd was producing an average of 4,000 litres every day therefore milk was being collected from the holding on a daily basis.
The project was approved in November 2005 and they are now in the process of installing an 11,500 litre DX tank to enable every other day milk collections. The existing dairy was too small to accommodate a larger tank so they have also received support to modify the building by knocking through into the neighbouring building and creating a separate tank room. In order to run the larger tank effectively the electricity supply to the dairy was upgraded to three phase.
Total project cost £46,964
Dairy Collect contribution £18,786 – 40%
Benefits of the project
- The direct benefits to the Blake’s include the opportunity to improve the volume bonus paid by their milk buyer and cut their electricity bill by improving the efficiency of how their milk is cooled. The total value of this is in excess of £10,000.
- Dairy Crest the Blake’s milk buyer will benefit from only having to collect milk from the farm every second day thus reducing their transport costs. It is a 20 mile round trip from Barlendew to the Davidstow cheese factory and this project will halve the number of journeys too and from the farm, saving over 3,500 road miles per year.
- The environment will benefit from less food miles / milk tankers on the road and the more efficient and effective use of electricity for cooling milk.
Cornish Farmer recieves over ?17,000 in European funding
A Cornish Farm in Washaway, near Wadebridge, has had grant funding approved to the sum of £17, 556 (40% of the total investment) and work is now underway on the farm. Added to this, there is still over £1 million worth of funding still to be allocated.
The application was approved by Dairy Collect, a service of Cornwall Enterprise who are able to help fund equipment that will rationalise the cost of milk collection and transportation, save energy use in the dairy, reduce waste and enable the reuse of resources. The funding itself came from Objective One EAGGF and Defra.
The recipients of the funding are J & A Willcocks and Son of Tregleath Farm who milk 220 Holstein Friesian Cows and applied for grant to enable the expansion of milk storage. They also received funding to extend the turning area in the yard to enable larger milk collection vehicles on to the farm and for energy saving measures such as an ice builder and extra water storage.
The increased milk storage from 10,000 litres to 16,000 litres means that milk can be collected every other day from the farm throughout the whole year. This will mean significant financial benefits to both J & A Willcocks & Son and to Dairy Crest who purchase their milk. The Willcocks also have plans to increase their cow numbers and this investment will enable the collection every other day of all milk produced in the future.
The expanded turning area will result in faster collection times on the farm and the opportunity for Dairy Crest to bring in a larger collection vehicle. This in turn saves the dairy company time and money but more importantly generally improves the efficiency of milk collection in Cornwall, ultimately contributing to fewer tankers on the road.
As energy use becomes ever more pertinent, Dairy Collect is able to help fund equipment that will save energy use in the dairy, reduce waste energy and enable the reuse of resources. For J & A Willcocks & Son, Dairy Collect provided grant funding towards an ice builder and associated plate cooler to improve the efficiency for cooling the milk before it enters the bulk tank; and extra storage for water that has passed through the plate cooler so that it can be reused for washing down of equipment or as drinking water for the cows.
James Willcocks, partner said “This was a great opportunity to help move our business forward; all farmers know that the costs of producing milk and collection are on the rise and we were keen to do what we could to ensure the long term viability of our business. We found the Dairy Collect Scheme really straightforward, and the team took a lot of the stress out of the paper work.”
J & A Willcocks and Son of Tregleath were among the first projects to be approved and this is typical of the applications being received by the Dairy Collect team. The Dairy Collect Scheme has now allocated funding to 64 projects and committed over £700,000 of the available £2,300,000 of grant funding.
Scheme Manager Elizabeth Menmuir said; “The Dairy Collect Scheme has had a really positive first six months, we have 75 further projects in the pipeline and I urge any Cornish farmer who wants to take advantage of the funding to contact the office as soon as possible. We have a target to allocate all funding to projects by December 2006 which will be here before we know it”
DW & RJ Warren
Denis & Rosemary Warren farm at Tredinney Farm, St Buryan with their son James who is the herd manager. They have a herd of 165 Guernsey’s many of whom are prise winning show cows.
The Warren’s applied to Dairy Collect for an increase in milk storage capacity having been on every day collection for the two years prior, along with an ice builder and associated plate cooler to improve the efficiency of cooling the milk. With the expansion to 200 cows forecast, production is likely to reach c4000lt everyday with a tank capacity of 3,600lt.
The access to the unit is a long unmade lane which in most parts is accessible by an articulated tanker. However, it required widening at one section and a concrete turning area being created in front of the dairy to enable articulated tankers to turn.
In January 2007 the project was approved to install a 10,000lt tank and associated equipment to include some internal building works. Also approved was the improvement to the access. The majority of this work has now been completed with a small section of widening still to do.
With the business no longer on every day collection the Warren’s are receiving an increase in volume bonus and Dairy Crest no longer have to make a specific trip to collect their milk.
Total Project cost £36,623
Dairy Collect contribution £14,649
Project Now Closed
Dairy Collect was an Objective One funded Delegated Grant Scheme, designed to support infra structure improvements on Cornish dairy farms linked to the rationalisation of milk collection and transportation.
The Scheme was hosted by Cornwall Enterprise was designed by Cornwall Agri-food Council Development Team in partnership with Milk Link and Dairy Crest Direct.
Since the start of the Dairy Collect Scheme in August 2005, 201 dairy farms within Cornwall have received funding support totalling about £2.2million in grant.