LOVE LOCAL
100%GREENENERGY T
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FROM AN 18TH CENTURY CHEDDAR RECIPE TO A SELF-SUFFICIENT 21ST CENTURY, RICHARD CLOTHIER TALKS US THROUGH WYKE FARMS’ JOURNEY
he Clothier family beganmaking cheese in Somerset and the MendipHills around 1790, and while they stillwork to a recipe passed down through
generations, a lot has changed over the
years.Not only are they exporting Cheddar to 175 countries (they have better distribution of Vintage Cheddar in France than here in theUK), but they have just become one of the first dairy brands to be self-sufficient in green energy. “We are all passionate about farming,
the countryside,wherewe live andwhat we do here. So that feeds into the green energy thing really,” says Richard as he chats enthusiastically about the farm’s latest project. “We’ve been looking atways to
preserve the environment for generations to come…we’re looking at decisions that will affect the business for 100 years. I want to pay a sustainable price to our farmers so that they can still be producing milk andwe can still bemaking cheese in 100 years time. The green energy thing is
generations to come…”
“We’ve been looking at ways to preserve the environment for
inmanyways an extension of that, but also it shows howindependentwe are as a farming family,“ he adds. The farm’s 100 per cent green strategy
has been in the planning for the last eight or nine years and includes solar panels on the dairy unit roofs, re-usingwater from the dairy and now, the newly commissioned biogas plant. The building of the anaerobic digestion plant began last autumn, and both generatorswere up
and running by September this year. For those unfamiliarwith a biogas/AD
plant, it allowsWyke Farms to recycle natural assets and turn theminto
fuel.All manure, pig slurry andwaste fromthe dairy is put in there, themethane is fermented and then used to drive two big generators,which not only generate all the farm’s electricity, but also put some electricity back into the grid. Taking this one step further, thewater that is used to cool the generators and prevent them fromoverheating is then used to generate heat in the dairy. “Inmanyways the job thatwe have is
cyclic,” says Richard. “We feed the cows, the cows eat the grass, they produce muck, themuckmakes the grass grow, the cows producemilk,which produces cheese.We see the green anaerobic digester plant as putting another step in that process. The spentmaterial still goes on grass as fertilizer, butwe’ve taken all themethane out of it thatwould break down naturally and go into the atmosphere adding to the green house gas problem.”
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