The future of farming renewed
THE National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo was a great hit and a boon for Dubbo according to its organiser Karin Stark.
She said the expo was a great way to bring really credible businesses together to talk to farmers about what the opportunities are for cutting costs on their farms.
“We had some excellent exhibitors this year from large scale wind developers, to bioenergy and solar pumping suppliers,” Ms Stark told Dubbo Photo News.
‘We had a large-scale renewables session, given we in Dubbo are in the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone – it’s so important for landholders and the community to be thinking about what they want to get out of the build-out we’ll be seeing in the next few years and how everyone in the region can benefit, not just the landholders hosting these developments.
“We also know that there is a lack of trust that is currently limiting the uptake of renewable energy technologies, and farmers do have to do their research and be careful who they sign up with.
Ms Stark believes it’s vital that other producers get to hear about a wide range of experiences from other grassroots landholders.
“One of the best things farmers can do is speak to other farmers about who they used and whether they’ve been happy with the service and performance of a system,” she said.
Two of this year’s farmer speakers
were Edwina Beveridge and Paul Squires.
Edwina runs and operates Blantyre Farms, a 2200-sow piggery near Young.
They use a methane digestion system that captures methane gas from pig manure and converts it to electricity. This prevents methane from entering the atmosphere, which is 25 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
Victorian farmer Paul Squires made the trip north to attend the expo. He runs a winery with 100kw of tracking solar panels that take care of the vast majority of his energy needs.
More than 320 farmers, peak bodies, industry and Government representatives were in Dubbo for the second annual event.
“The numbers have grown since the first event in 2019, and that’s despite COVID hanging over our
heads,” Ms Stark said.
“It’s fantastic to see the level of interest in the topic of renewables in agriculture and I really believe there is so much potential for farmers in this space,” Ms Stark said.
“On the ground, we’re seeing some incredible examples of innovative farmers reducing their costs while mitigating climate change, and that gives us real cause for optimism in the sector.”