Left Switzerland at 6am, driving east and north, past Zurich and caught in traffic then lots and lots of tunnels to St Galen around the lake and into Austria breifly then into Germany...immediatly the tunnels dispear and the road quality improved, silky smooth tarmac...'Deutche-technic (Engineering)'......Travel north towards Munich to visit Her Miller nr Munich.
Seems I hit every road repair and closure going on this journey sending the TOm Tom into a nervpous breakdown....
He is a Biodaminic farmer with a passion for the soil like me......hi is also a pioneer and a business man. Sice 1991 he has run a 99ha farm organically....so same as us....but he has pulled together 25 farmers all stockless arable organic to develop a biogass project which has been running for 6 years. The novel part, not a maize plant in site and not an animal anywhere!//////// the 25 farms all have 2--30% clover in the rotation and this is the only material going into the biogass system. 250ha per year cut 4 times provides all the biomass for a 350kw/hr biogass plant through two fermenting reactors and 1 storage tank.....nothing else goes in not even water........20% loss of volume after biogass and a digestate fertaliser is left. this is applied back to the cash cereal crops on the clover supplying farms and results in a 25% uplift in cereal crop yields!
The second novel bit is x 4 large concrete silos or pits for the biomass silage...these have high sloping roofs all with PV panells on them - a second income stream......
Im hugley impressed. all the ludites in the UK renewable energy sector say ' it canbt be done' and you must grow maize............which is madness as it takes more energy to grow the maize than you get out of it!.....proving them wrong is a pioneering Bavarian farmer...'Deutche Technic'
We spend all day together talking about Biogass plants, engineering, tractors organbic farming, soils, politics, CAP reform etc.....His family gracefully invited me for lunch and I also ended up staying for dinner also......yet again I stumble accross a kindred spirit. Think I need to bring Her Miller to the UK.
Tomorow travels to north and west of Munich to see agroforestry, organic apple agroforestry (its catching!!!!!) and trails of cereals
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