The primary income from the 1700 acre arable farming enterprise is derived from growing winter wheat , OSR , spring barley , linseed and beans . Wheat yields average 3.7t / ac . To supplement the farms income and to utilise equipment the business also runs a contracting arm . Further income is raised from a timber business that produces and sells firewood .

Mr Smith explains : “ We already have a log splitting business which involves buying in hardwood from local UK sources – from which we produce fire wood for the domestic market .

“ We are always looking for alternative income streams for the business , and the renewables market has been an interest to us . In the past we have looked at burning straw bales , in particular linseed straw , of which we now grow 300 acres in place of wheat and oilseed rape in the rotation . “ Linseed straw doesn ' t go through the combine choppers very well so most growers just burn it in the field . We thought about burning it for energy but following a discussion with our neighbour Dan King about the option of using wood chip biomass boilers to dry grain and heat various buildings on site , we contacted NerG .”

By March 2015 NerG had installed two Froling boilers . The heat from one boiler is used to dry grain in four 600ton sheds , while heat from the other is used to dry wood chip down to 20 % and provide heat for the log kiln , office , a five bedroom farm house and the workshop . A general purpose shed in the yard has been converted into a 150m3 wood chip store .

The original investment to supply and install the Froling

boilers was about £ 145,000 plus VAT . The farm used its own equipment and labour to install all 125m of underground pipes to NerG specifications at a cost of £ 50 / m . The total installation took about two months .

“ We started digging the trenches in February last year and completed the whole installation by the April , in order to achieve the 6.8ppkw tariff ,” says Mr Smith . “ We looked at several boiler options before committing to Froling as our research put them at the top of the list in terms of build quality and specification .

“ We are really pleased with the service that NerG has given us , particularly from the engineer Dave Coleman . Any time of day he is on call for technical queries and service issues .”

Mr Smith trades the wood chip as well as burns it . He also buys timber off forestry companies as well as waste timber and chip off tree surgeons and other businesses who remove timber such as poplars and willow from river banks and water ways .

“ We supply dry wood chip to other biomass boiler users locally . We keep the poorer quality wood chip for our own boilers and only sell quality product off the farm .” Mr Smith explains that the biomass boilers burn more wood than was first anticipated which has had an impact on profitability . However , he thinks that is to do with the quality of chip he is burning at home . This is affecting the usage rather than the boiler efficiency .

He calculates that through the RHI payment he should receive a return of about £ 18,000 / annum for each boiler . Wood chip varies in price depending on quality between £ 35- £ 90 / t . He has also saved on the cost of oil and gas and electricity – despite current low fossil fuel prices – as well as played his part in improving the environment .

“ The savings on fossil fuels more than covers the cost of my lower grade wood chip for both boilers ,” he says . “ We are not expecting significant repair bills for the boilers but maintenance and

service bills are inevitable . The Froling boiler weighs about 500kg more than equivalent boilers on the market so we assume that there is some quality built into it .”

The farm uses its own

Farmer Ollie Smith

telehandler and screen to move and grade wood chip into a shed for either drying storing or feeding into the boilers which is the augured automatically .