I have been living with the Miscanthus bug, and I don’t think I’m alone, since my first planting some six years ago. Despite riding the rollercoaster of the crop’s fortunes in the UK, I haven’t lost the enthusiasm for Miscanthus that got me started in the first place.
The availability of a low-maintenance (virtually no maintenance!) crop which would grow well on the poorer and more difficult parts of the farm, while delivering better biodiversity and a reduced carbon footprint with a 20+ year lifespan, seemed almost too good to be true and clearly attracted me and many other pioneer growers.
But true it was and indeed is. Meanwhile, we did our best to cope with the one variable element that dogged the market – who was going to buy the stuff and for how much?
The good news is that for those growers like me who have hung on in there since the early days and for those who are thinking about planting Miscanthus today, things are becoming far more certain, perhaps even boringly predictable!
The launch of Terravesta means that there is a company now willing and able to buy all the Miscanthus that UK growers, present and future, can produce. And at a good index-linked price, for years to come. Even better if it’s below 18% moisture and thus ideal for pelleting.
So I am hugely pleased to have let Miscanthus get under my skin, to have stayed with the crop and to have become part of the Terravesta solution that has brought certainty to the sector for the first time.