DEAR SIR

Will farmers be the main group driving and benefiting from the anaerobic digestion initiative or will they be competing against the new group of farmers that will more than likely be established to supply the digesters with grass?

As we see with the dairy sector, if a farm enterprise is successful, farmers will gravitate towards that enterprise.

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Anaerobic digestion is not a bad idea as long as it doesn’t complicate the farm sector in terms of competition between farmers and the resources such as fertiliser and silage.

Livestock farmers will have no shortage of slurry whereas non-livestock farmers could grow grass for the digester.

How will the balance of current farm systems be affected – at the moment tillage and livestock farmers are working together with tillage farmers supplying straw and grain and livestock farmers supply beef and dairy products.

It will be interesting to see how this initiative works out.

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