The Farming Express The Farming Express Jan iss4 | Page 7

Rural crime still a problem for county’s small communities
THE Kidlington police team have
introduced themselves to almost every
farmer in the Kidlington area.
They are trying to tackle rural crime,
which includes theft of machinery and
tools from farms, attacking or stealing
livestock and other wildlife crimes
such as hare coursing.
This winter has seen Kidlington’s
rural crime levels rise, with increased
thefts from cars and farms, as well as
more oil thefts.
Pc Ian Ledger said: “We were getting
one or two calls a month then in
October we realised it was shooting up
to several a week.

“At this time of year it’s getting darker
earlier, and these farms are out in the
middle of nowhere so it’s easier for
criminals.
“We’re a low-crime area anyway and
I don’t think we’re any different than
anywhere else in the country.”
He said that he expected the new year
to see another spike in the theft of
horses and tack.
“It will still be dark and they won’t
have to hold on to it long because
there will be a whole load of car boot
sales for it all in the spring.
“People don’t want to security tag tack
because it’s so expensive and tagging

it reduces the resale price, but [not
tagging] it makes it easier to steal.”
He urged horse-owners to call the
police if they noticed anything
different about their horses, especially
knots in manes or ribbons and threads
tied into tails.
“Those things haven’t happened by
accident, clearly someone’s tampered
with your horse so call us and we may
be able to prevent a theft.”
Since Police and Crime Commissioner
Anthony Stansfeld,pictured, was
elected two years ago, Thames Valley
Police has made rural crime a priority.
Mr Stansfeld promised the police
would attend every rural crime
reported, but Sgt Colin Travi said his
team was already doing that.
“We always had visited every one.
You find out a bit more than you
would from a phone call. It also makes
people feel like you actually do care.”
But he did admit the PCC’s new
priorities have changed how police
interact with farmers: “That’s really
changed how we handle it and keep in
contact with our local community.
“People used to think we didn’t care
about what happened to them, but
we do. We want to know about their
concerns. You can never take your eye
off the ball. I’m still convinced there’s

not enough reports coming in.
“There’s a lot more going on, stuff
happens and people don’t tell us
because they can’t be bothered or
think they’re wasting our time.”
He added that rural crime is not
merely the work of opportunistic
thieves: “These are organised criminal
gangs, very organised and very
professional. It’s big business and they
run into other areas of criminality, like
drugs and exploitation.
“It’s international as well, goods are
getting shipped out to North Africa
and things.
“They are very heavily-funded and
it takes a lot of man-power and
investigation and time to lock them
up.”
‘It’s good to see
police responding’
ONE of Jonathan
Smith’s low-bar
gates was stolen
from his field,
which is part of
Logg Farm in
Oddington. 
To stop
pedestrians
walking in his
arable fields, he
has placed an

old flat-bed truck over the gap in the
hedges instead. 
Pc Ledger, who used to work
as a farmer in Sussex and
Buckinghamshire, said: “Whoever
stole that could have sold it on as itself
or as scrap metal. It’ll be worth about
£350.” 
Mr Smith, who has worked on the
farm since 1970, said: “The gate was
stolen overnight. 
“One day it was there and the next it
was not. I always tell the police these
sorts of problems. 
“It’s good seeing them on the ground
and coming out within a couple of
hours.”

THE price of diesel has rocketed from 7p
to 70p per litre in the last decade, making
drying grain and heating sheds an expensive
business.
Until recently, the idea of using straw as a
fuel instead of oil seemed far-fetched. Not
least because of the prohibitive cost of a
biomass boiler. But the introduction of a new
Government subsidy scheme has changed
this.
The Government has been targeted to have
12 per cent of all heating coming from
renewable sources by the end of the decade.
This is why it was important for the uptake of
technologies such as heat pumps, biogas and
biomass boilers, to receive a boost similar to
the one their renewable cousins wind turbines
and solar panels were already enjoying.
In September 2012, the Department for
Energy and Climate Change (DECC) finally
launched the Renewable Heat Incentive
(RHI) and the first to benefit from the scheme
are commercial premises, including farms.
John Seed, director at Berwickshire-based
Topling Biomass Energy Systems, says: “It
has changed the whole nature of the business.
“We have been lagging behind the likes of
Germany and Denmark in using biomass for
heating, but the RHI should help us jump
ahead.”
Ambition to reality
It is this payment which could turn renewable
heat technologies such as biomass boilers
from green ambition to commercial reality.
For Mr Seed, as a director of a company
which sells biomass boilers, the RHI has
helped kick-start his business. It will also
boost his own farm in Berwickshire on which

he installed a biomass boiler two years ago.
In 2011, he dried 3,000 tonnes of cereals,
beans and oilseed rape, which would have
used more than 60,000 litres of oil costing
about £30,000. In addition, heating the
poultry shed and houses would have cost a
further £8,500.
Using straw in a new 450kW biomass boiler,
the process cost him just £2,000. And now
the RHI is in place, Mr Seed will not only be
saving money but he will be making it too –
about 5.1p for every kW of heat he produces.
He has already convinced neighbouring
farmers to follow in his footsteps.
Rob Cowe farms 30 minutes away in
Oldcastles and grows 566 hectares (1,400
acres) of wheat, winter and spring barley,
oilseed rape and beans.
Recently, Mr Cowe decided to update his
‘antiquated’ drying shed and install two
600-tonne grain drying floors with an 850kW
biomass boiler and heat exchanger from
Topling.
He says: “It was usually at harvest time when
I would start haggling over 0.5p per litre on
quotes for diesel, but now I do not have to
make that call.”
Harvest
Last year, Mr Cowe burnt 47 tonnes of straw
to extract 108 tonnes of water from his
1,350-tonne wheat harvest.
The grain moisture content was 27 per cent.
His boiler holds two tonnes of straw at a time
and is serving him well, especially in the
heat-hungry period when grain is being dried.
As well as fuel savings, there are labour
benefits too, Mr Cowe adds.
At first, Mr Cowe was concerned he would

spend all his time topping the boiler up. But
he found it can easily be loaded in ‘well
under 20 minutes’ using a tractor with a
front-end loader or a forklift.
Mr Cowe’s system has a flexi-controller and
an accumulator tank. The controller optimises
efficiency of combustion within the boiler
by adjusting air flow according to oxygen
requirement. The accumulator tank 
is built
around the flue to increase overall efficiency
of heat transfer even further.
In the past 30 years, the efficiency of biomass
boilers has improved considerably. In 1980 it
was 35-40 per cent, whereas the system Mr
Cowe runs can top 80 per cent.
But this kind of equipment does not come
cheap, warns Mr Seed. He says: “When
farmers spend a lot of money they tend to
like something with moving parts. It is a big
investment, but a sound one.”
Mr Seed says the return on investment
tends to be between three and seven years
‘depending on the level of investment and
amount of fossil fuel being replaced’. His
own boiler cost £250,000 and the payback
will be five years.
Critical
Financial support is a critical step as
incentive schemes for renewables have been
tarred by the fiasco surrounding the Feed-in
Tariff (FiT) for solar energy.
In 2011, the Government cut payments for
solar schemes before an official consultation
closed. This decision had to be revoked
following a High Court ruling.
Because the technology was so popular, the
Government ran out of funding for the FiTs
scheme, leaving the solar industry in a state

of panic for months.
RHI tariffs are already under review, but
for the opposite reason – lack of uptake.
According to the latest figures from DECC,
less than one-fifth of the total £133 million
RHI budget for 2012/13 is likely to be paid
out.
Mr Seed says the tariffs are fine up to
1,000kW, but the level should be increased to
5,000kW. He says: “There are lots of small
rural businesses and communities which have
gas and oil systems of this size and cannot
take up the RHI due to the 1,000kW cut-off.”
For Kelso farmer Tom Clark (see panel
below), a biomass boiler would have been a
complete ‘non-starter’ if it had not been for
the RHI.
Unlike Mr Cowe who opted for the
technology as a ‘purely financial decision’,
Mr Clark started thinking about it for
environmental reasons.
Other circumstances, including a workforce
reduction, a ‘frightening’ £14,000 fuel bill
in 2011 and the new subsidy, saw him bite
the bullet and invest in a 450kW system in
August.
Mr Seed says: “It is clear many farms, rural
businesses and communities have become
over-dependent on fossil fuel derived inputs
and have lost their ability to cope with
sudden increased input costs.
“Farmers are hemorrhaging money when it
comes to fuel costs. So if you can cut those
and make your farm more efficient, you are
better equipped to deal with the vagaries of
the weather and other challenges. The RHI
runs for 20 years, so this is a chance to fix
your energy costs until 2033.”

Government incentives making biomass worthwhile on-farm