Comment – Self sufficiency and my BLT

I’ll leave the news to others, except to say that I’m relieved that the future of my weekend BLT sandwich has been secured by the UK Government.

Let me explain, CO2 is needed for medical purposes, to stun livestock and modify the atmosphere in glasshouses.  This week’s news that the Ensus CO2 plant on Teesside is to reopen with a £100m government investment to secure home produced supplies is welcome. Several key components of my weekend treat are now safe. Closer to home we are also expecting more piglets shortly, thus securing next winters bacon and sausage supplies.

I wasn’t quite sure how the Ensus plant produced CO2, and it turns out via google (other search engines are available) that its the by-product of bioethanol production via fermentation and distillation. Of course this also needs wheat, but how much? To my surprise at full capacity the plant uses a million tonnes of UK and EU wheat.   So the UK rolling five year average wheat production is just shy of 14 million tonnes, that should stick a bottom in the wheat market.

I  found this piece on tractor size and productivity bottlenecks and must admit, whilst it’s obvious in certain circumstances, I hadn’t really thought about it before. What do you reckon?

Right back to the lambing shed. Obviously it’s chucking it down and we have almost run out of pens.

Have a dry week.

Andy