“It has given us a reliable income stream, a base margin in the farm – we know we can invest in the long term. We’ve noticed since using the digestate as a soil enhancer we have far better crops and we use it on our grassland too. It has cut the amount of bagged fertiliser we use by at least half too which is a major benefit.”

-Troy Stuart

How long have you been working with ENGIE UK?

“We’ve been working with ENGIE UK for around six years – both as a farmer, supplying them crop and as a primary contractor, harvesting their crop and taking away digestate to spread on the land.”

How important is this working relationship to you and your business?

“The relationship with ENGIE UK is very important for the agricultural community – it gives all of the farmers that supply them a base value for their crop, it’s good to take out fluctuations in the marketplace.

The other main advantage for arable farmers is that it is a break crop – it still allows us to grow our main primary, commercial crops like wheat but it adds maize into the rotation and this works well from a workload point of view.

One of the other main benefits is that we get to use digestate – it’s essentially an organic fertiliser. It saves us having to use bagged, artificial fertiliser –digestate is a far better replacement and we are getting better, healthier looking crops as well!

There’s really important environmental benefits too – there’s a lot lower carbon usage than using mineralised fertilisers and by using digestate, you’re also benefitting from a superior product with a lot more goodness in it too, such as all of the other enzymes and nutrients.”

What are the benefits of working with ENGIE?

“It has given us a reliable income stream, a base margin in the farm – we know we can invest in the long term. We’ve noticed since using the digestate as a soil enhancer we have far better crops and we use it on our grassland too. It has cut our bagged fertiliser by at least half too which is a major benefit.”

Are there wider benefits, other than those mentioned to you and your business?

“The wider benefits are that being part of this means we are assisting a company that is producing renewable energy locally. There’s been so much volatility with prices that it is useful to have a company on our doorstep, we are reducing our reliance on other countries – this is a local source of renewable energy, controlled locally too.”