A FARMER has been given a funding boost to go green.
Poultry farmer David Sykes, from New Dunsley Farm, in Holmfirth, is one of eight to receive a grant from a pot of £89,000 to help them be more environmentally-friendly.
The money will be spent on new equipment for the farms, including heat exchange units, rain water harvesting and slurry separation and application kit. Mr Sykes received £12,000 for a new heat exchanger on his poultry farm.
The heat exchanger pulls old, stale air from the chicken shed and extracts the waste heat it contains.
This captured energy is used to heat clean, fresh air as it is pumped back in to the shed. It not only saves money on the propane that was previously used to heat the shed, but also improves the health of the birds.
David said: “The new heat system has been a great success, both saving the farm money and making the livestock healthier.
“It’s been great to be able to install the new heating as part of the redevelopment of the sheds. We would not have been able to do this without this financial help.”
New Dunsley Farm received the grant through the Rural Development Programme for England’s Farm Resource Efficiency Programme, delivered by CO2Sense. Over the last year, funding has helped farms to save over £100,000 and 245 tonnes of CO2.
More funding will soon be available for farm based projects and anyone interested should email Vicky Wren on Vicky.wren@co2sense.org.uk or call 0113 237 8461 for more information.
