Harvesting willow trees for renewable /biomass energy

Harvesting our willow planation for biomass or renewable energy
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[@robbievangeenenNL]

I never knew willow was a crop! So if I understood correctly it takes three years for it to grow that tall? What are the chips used for? Thanks for sharing this. My horizon is once more broadened :-)

[@stevenharpervw]

robbievangeenen 🙈😂 forgot time say in the video what happens to the chip. It goes to the power station and is burnt to generate electricity. So it’s a carbon neutral Fuel. The own real down side is there is no off the shelf machines to harvest the willow. This harvester is custom made just for this one job. Where are you from Robbie I meant to ask you ages ago

[@robbievangeenenNL]

@@stevenharpervw Thanks for the insight! I live in the southern most part of the Netherlands not far from the German and Belgian border and actually quite close to Luxemburg. It's fairly rural around here, but no willow farming as far as I'm aware of. I think it's great that the harvester is customized for the particular job of harvesting the willow branches. Cheers, Robert.

[@adamwilliams5426]

@@stevenharpervw Correct me if I'm wrong but you claim carbon neutral, do you include the one off planting and land prep, harvesting, machinery production/fuel, truck transport to and from, compost delivery, compost manufacturing process? There are so many factors hidden behind the term carbon neutral. In reality I think its not. Also its not sustainable as a large scale industry as it would consume land that could be actually working to reduce carbon. Not just pretending to. Very interesting nonetheless.

[@stevenharpervw]

@@adamwilliams5426 it’s like Tesla / electric cars or the Green Party- it’s zero carbon or carbon neutral. It’s impossible to say. Basically my understanding is trees and plants need co2 to live. ( co2 in -> oxygen o2 out ) what ever co2 is generated from the harvesting /transport etc is reabsorbed by the next crop. It’s a closed lope cycle. The land is wet land that wouldn’t grow wheat for breed or produce grass for animals . Willow loves water so it drinks up the water in the wet soil . It’s the best crop for this land . But my question to you is, what’s the alternative? What could we grown to better work the land or better reduce co2 Check out my other video on mischanthus and the struggles on growing RE crop . The video cover is called “kilogen” or I’ll try link it this video description

[@adamwilliams5426]

@@stevenharpervw I think you choose a great crop to harvest its very interesting. As regards to carbon all the co2 that is absorbed will be then put back out into the air. This part is mostly neutral, but its all the other factors that I mentioned that push to the negative. Not a big deal really.

[@TheRanch4Life]

This is fantastic, thanks so much for the info. I have a 2 acre paddock that's sitting doing nothing and have been looking into growing willow. I want to make sculptures, fences and wigloos but if it all goes wrong it's good to know I can make Biomass haha! How big is your willow plot? Great video :)

[@stevenharpervw]

Our plot is 5Ha. Willow loves wet soil and if you can feed it with dirty water it loves it. Yep I’ve seen loads of people who weave with willow making fencing, baskets 🧺 and sculptures ( far more talented than me) Ya we even heated our house with it. If you van get it chipped it’s brilliant too for horses that are sore, as there is tiny traces of natural aspirin in it.

[@TheRanch4Life]

@@stevenharpervw oh wow thank you so much for getting back to me. We have 10 acres all together but it's chopped up into 4 paddocks. Thanks for telling me about the aspirin. I'd heard that somewhere but didn't think it was for real. we are up on the edge of the Durham dales and it gets quite cold so it will be great for the log burning stove. I'm quite excited about the whole willow thing so I'll keep an eye on your videos for tips haha. Thanks so much for your help

[@stevenharpervw]

@@TheRanch4Life at €900/T for oil seed Rape in 2022 and other crops and the price for grass as dairy is on the rise no it doesn’t stack up.

[@JackkLeee]

No bother to the wee Legend 👍🏼

[@johnwmurphy]

Excellent video.😊 subscribed

[@stevenharpervw]

JM Agri Videos thank you very much !

[@Tomtum8797]

How long did it take to fill a trailer?

[@stevenharpervw]

About 2 lengths of the field

[@trevbrady]

Some beast of a machine!

[@stevenharpervw]

veewrx thanks I have been working out 💪 .., the harvester was fairly big too

[@mts7274]

What type of willow is that? I can never get a consistent answer any time I ask about them.

[@stevenharpervw]

It’s specially breed of willow . That’s selectively bread to grow tall and does well when coppist ( cut) I don’t know the type but I do know it’s a poly culture

[@mts7274]

@@stevenharpervw lol, okay thanks... i'll keep asking around.

[@stevenharpervw]

@@mts7274 here’s a video that might be interesting to watch kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5jGiIFniriJndksi=X2qNKN60U9bflqIm

[@JohnSmith-il4wi]

What species of willow is this, is it the weeping willow tree?

[@stevenharpervw]

Hybrid

[@JohnSmith-il4wi]

@@stevenharpervw Thanks

[@rationalis5867]

What is the Return on Investment of this endeavour? How much can you sell the willow per acre/ha for? How much did it cost to prepare the land, to plant the willows, to fertilize, etc.?

[@stevenharpervw]

I don’t have the answers, but you can look up the info on teagasc.ie

[@glidewatch]

Willow is amazing, have planted some to stabilise a wet brook side. Grew from sticks to 8 ft plus in a season. Will not grow commercially so won't get your fantastic joy with the kit, excellent smile !

[@adrielrocco7036]

InstaBlaster...

[@mlindsay527]

Can you get the ash back from the biomass plant to reapply to the soil?

[@stevenharpervw]

Hello and thank you for Your comment. Please don’t forget to subscribe. I put organic compost out but no I was not able to get the ash back, because of the distance to the powe plant

[@reddyadapala6164]

How much that attachment cost and given any contact no of attachment suppliers

[@stevenharpervw]

Harvester internals are modified too, home built

[@novagsiful]

What do you have to do to the harvester to cut the willow

[@stevenharpervw]

Oh it’s totally modified . I don’t think it would could grass again .

[@shakibs1002]

How do you water them

[@stevenharpervw]

Like the grass, We leave that up to god . 😅

[@MrChristaylor89]

hi, thanks for the video really informative. I've read from various sources that you should get about 8-12tonnes/ha/pa, but im a bit confused. As the crop cycle is three years, is yield at harvest 8-12tonnes, or do you get 8-12tonnes of growth per year, harvested every three years for 24-36 tonnes at harvest ? I'm putting together some numbers to try and get off grid with the biomass, and 3x one way or the other obviously makes a big difference! thanks again.

[@stevenharpervw]

Some harvests can be 2 years . Ours was 6 as the guys that were meant to harvest never turned up so we got this crew to cut instead . Far more reliable

[@MrChristaylor89]

@@stevenharpervw hi, thanks for getting back to me so quickly, glad to hear you got somebody reliable in the end! that's not quite what i meant though, its my fault, i felt i didnt write the question well as i was writing it. does the crop put on about 10 tonnes a year per hectare, or is it 10 tonnes at harvest (every 3 years for you, so growing 3.3 tonnes per year)? any more help would be really appreciated, thanks!

[@4ngin]

Hi steve, thank you for answering my question in your other video. I plan to build a calliandra plantation and use it biomass for renewable energi. Can this equipment be used on hilly land? if i want purchased, is it possible to shiping these monster overseas

[@stevenharpervw]

No I say it has to be on flat land. You might be better off building your own machine or getting something like a hedge cutter with a circular disc

[@4ngin]

@@stevenharpervw thanks for the insight, honestly i live in indonesia with mostly hilly land. lookslike i must going back to old methods, cut and extract than forward to chipper. Terima kasih

[@arnoldmapa7693]

Great where I can buy willow 🌲?

[@stevenharpervw]

No idea

[@blablabla1000able]

Why harvest when it's green? Won't it regrow faster if you harvest when it's dormant? And won't it be drier so it won't overheat/need to be dried for combustion?

[@stevenharpervw]

You must be an engineer 😅 yep your correct about everything but we don’t own the machine so when it arrives we cut. ( it’s a custom machine) Also while it’s dormant it also is the wettest part of the year and machinery will get stuck, so we would actually do more damage. We harvest when the machinery arrives but in spring, so for any setback the crop gets it also the time the crop does the best regrowth. There is a balance between as you said ideal time and actual time the crop can be physically cut. Thank you for Your comment and watching the video. It’s a fantastic crop but it’s still very new

[@blablabla1000able]

@@stevenharpervw thanks for your response! Willow definitely seems like a crop of the future. Are the economics of it alright relative to the typical corn/soy?

[@Tomtum8797]

How many acres a day can you harvest?

[@lordsamich755]

How are the chips dried? I assume they're not burned green.

[@stevenharpervw]

Cut in the spring before the sap levels rise. (April) And then stored in the shed for about a month. The timber does heat a little but that’s ok as it does also dry out the timber and stabilises itself so we don’t need to dry it. Maybe next time I’d try a duct in the middle to blow air into it or suck air out. I did turn it once just to increase the surface area and not have it all in one big pyramid but 2 or 3 large heaps. The power plant took a sample and were happy with it

[@lordsamich755]

@@stevenharpervw Thanks for the info. Fortunately I've found the whole stem harvester design I need, just have to get the actual model number. The plan is to stack them like staves of firewood, let them dry, then chip them.

[@stevenharpervw]

@@lordsamich755 yes like this? We did that 7 years ago. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qF7Ji6Zsbq6fiMk

[@sequoyah59]

How much does the giverment subsidize this crop so somebody can feel good about saving the environment that didn't ask to be saved?

[@stevenharpervw]

Nothing and the government also keeps our carbon credits

[@mallorygarbutt6019]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. What time of year do you undertake this operation? Is there a conflict with nesting birds?

[@stevenharpervw]

March

[@bovillayap4026]

Please advise growing period before it can be harvested and how many tons per acre ?

[@stevenharpervw]

Every 3 years . Yield depends on volume, age of the trees, soil, wet:dry, extra food like waste water etc