We are all keen to know what 2025 will bring. Farmers would be comforted to know that ‘normal’ seasonal weather patterns like the cold of these past few days, and as do most business owners, that this Labour Government will take the trouble to understand the catastrophic impact their decision are already having on future planning of business growth, investments and whether to take on additional staff or even close down businesses.
I don’t wish to start the year on a too gloomy note as we need desperately to be optimistic for the future, although it is somewhat hard to find that chink of light but let us hope something positive happens. Perhaps President Trump and his mates will seize the day and shake things up across the pond. They say miracles can happen, let us hope they do in good old Blighty.
I am not one for New Year resolutions, I prefer to seize each day as it comes. We all face challenges, many self-inflicted but some are the result of decisions made by others who fail to grasp the catastrophic impact of their actions through ignorance, stupidity, malice or downright idleness.
Our main challenge this year is the start of building the Ote Hall Farm Shop and Country Kitchen. Work begins this month but will probably stop once we have established the ground works to ensure we do not fall foul of the planning permission which will run out in May, as will our funds.
Funding is the biggest challenge. Having had everything in place in 2021 and ready to go backed up by a considerable RPA grant, very favourable terms with the Bank, and funds which we had put aside over the proceeding years for the project. Unfortunately, the family trustees decided not to support the plan at the last minute which resulted in the loss of the grant and Bank loan. They then proceeded to siphon off funds from the farm business which we had so carefully saved for the development, leaving us relatively skint. The only good news is we have at great personal expense removed these trustees except from a couple of properties which they are holding onto for grim death. From our experience I would recommend anyone thinking of setting up a family Trust, never take on or trust professional Trustees.
The story of the Godman family at Ote Hall goes back over 500 years. This latest move into further diversification starts here in 2025. We are determined to get the job done which will ensure we remain up and running for at least the next hundred years. We look forward to welcoming everyone once it is evenytually up and running. When that will be I cannot say.
If the ‘green fuel’ SAF which the government is insisting be introduced into aviation fuel is increased as they threaten, I think we should be very worried. If biofuels have the same effect on aircraft engines as it did on countless farmer’s tractors, including ours, aircraft could be dropping out of the sky at an alarming rate.
Some years ago, we had major problems with our almost new Massey Ferguson. It was all singing, all dancing with a fancy modern engine, a computer system which meant we were unable to fix even the slightest glitch until an ‘expert’ came along with his computer to identify the problem. And did we have a problem! Time again the tractor ground to a halt which John found highly frustrating. The engineer’s computer directed us towards the fuel injectors which were cleaarly faulty and repeatedly brought the tractor to a standstill.
Over the following weeks and months, we replaced the fuel injectors at least twice and the injector pump once, leaving us without our main work horse for lengthy periods when it was crucial to get on with field work, and at cost for parts and labour of more than £24k.
I was certain it was fuel related and therefore questioned Southern Farmers who manage our fuel deliveries. They put me in touch with several of their local suppliers and eventually I also spoke to the manager of the major fuel depot which supplied the Southeast, based in the Midlands who assured me it couldn’t possibly be a problem caused by their fuel.
All along I was assured the fuel was top quality and it must be the fault of our tractor, ‘possibly a Monday morning or Friday afternoon model’ they said! However, the day I got a call from Graham at Yeowarts’ who in those days supplied our MF tractors and who tried so hard to identify the cause of our problems, that 12 tractors had been delivered that Monday morning to their workshop with similar fuel injector and pump problems, I knew I was onto something.
I wrote to the Farmers Weekly, introduced the subject into my weekly column in the WSG. I got back to the guy in the Midlands who yet again assured me there was no problem with the fuel, and I updated Southern Farmers on the escalating problem.
It was quite evident that farms were being supplied with poor quality red diesel some of which was imported, and yes had added biofuel which today’s finely tuned engines could clearly not cope with. Our older tractors with their good old heavy-duty engines like the MF 390 and MF 6475 Dynashift remained unaffected.
In the end we gave up trying to fix the problem; too much damage had been done and too much money spent on trying to fix it, so we traded it in for the MF7718 S. On the day this big beast arrived in the yard I received a call from the manager of the fuel depot in the Midlands who came clean and told me he was receiving a flood of complaints like mine and the problem was ‘probably’ due to the introduction of a higher % of biofuels.
Sure enough when we sent yet another fuel sample from the farm tank for analysis, this time to an independent lab not the suppliers, they identified high traces of biofuel which clearly had caused the problem and destroyed what had been a perfectly good tractor.
We drained the tank again and refilled with high grade GT L diesel. Now each time I order a refill I insist on confirmation of its content. So far thankfully we have kept clear of further fuel problems.
The government as we know is insisting biofuels, Sustainable Aviation Fuel, be introduced into aviation kerosine on an escalating scale year on year; it has already begun at 2%.
When gas station petrol was changed some years ago from E5 to E10 many cars and motor bikes developed problems with fuel injectors and pumps. As one knowledgeable friend told me when I spoke to him earlier today when checking my facts, he said that at the time many drivers were sure this was done on purpose to get people to change to EVs faster than predicted. Cynical yes, but I suspect there could well be some truth in that.
The Government’s website tells us that Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is an airplane fuel alternative designed to cut lifecycle carbon emissions. It is almost chemically identical to traditional jet fuel and so directly replaces fossil fuel. It can be made from a variety of sources, including different types of waste, and by combining hydrogen with captured carbon. The biggest single contribution that will help us get to Net Zero is changing airline fuel to SAF – it is projected to account for around 40% of the total carbon reductions by 20501.
According to the UK Government SAF emits on average 70% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using fossil jet fuel on a lifecycle basis2. This could potentially become 100% in future when third generation Power-to-Liquid fuels are available (currently in small scale production).
My question is, do we really want to fly in aircraft with the risk of having dodgy fuel in their tanks? Is this helter skelter dive into Net Zero like all this government’s decisions to date an experiment into just how far they can manipulate the public, clearly thinking we are all as stupid and impractical as they are?
I think I will aim to keep my feet firmly on the Tera Ferma!
I don’t wish to start the year on a too gloomy note as we need desperately to be optimistic for the future, although it is somewhat hard to find that chink of light but let us hope something positive happens. Perhaps President Trump and his mates will seize the day and shake things up across the pond. They say miracles can happen, let us hope they do in good old Blighty.
I am not one for New Year resolutions, I prefer to seize each day as it comes. We all face challenges, many self-inflicted but some are the result of decisions made by others who fail to grasp the catastrophic impact of their actions through ignorance, stupidity, malice or downright idleness.
Our main challenge this year is the start of building the Ote Hall Farm Shop and Country Kitchen. Work begins this month but will probably stop once we have established the ground works to ensure we do not fall foul of the planning permission which will run out in May, as will our funds.
Funding is the biggest challenge. Having had everything in place in 2021 and ready to go backed up by a considerable RPA grant, very favourable terms with the Bank, and funds which we had put aside over the proceeding years for the project. Unfortunately, the family trustees decided not to support the plan at the last minute which resulted in the loss of the grant and Bank loan. They then proceeded to siphon off funds from the farm business which we had so carefully saved for the development, leaving us relatively skint. The only good news is we have at great personal expense removed these trustees except from a couple of properties which they are holding onto for grim death. From our experience I would recommend anyone thinking of setting up a family Trust, never take on or trust professional Trustees.
The story of the Godman family at Ote Hall goes back over 500 years. This latest move into further diversification starts here in 2025. We are determined to get the job done which will ensure we remain up and running for at least the next hundred years. We look forward to welcoming everyone once it is evenytually up and running. When that will be I cannot say.
If the ‘green fuel’ SAF which the government is insisting be introduced into aviation fuel is increased as they threaten, I think we should be very worried. If biofuels have the same effect on aircraft engines as it did on countless farmer’s tractors, including ours, aircraft could be dropping out of the sky at an alarming rate.
Some years ago, we had major problems with our almost new Massey Ferguson. It was all singing, all dancing with a fancy modern engine, a computer system which meant we were unable to fix even the slightest glitch until an ‘expert’ came along with his computer to identify the problem. And did we have a problem! Time again the tractor ground to a halt which John found highly frustrating. The engineer’s computer directed us towards the fuel injectors which were cleaarly faulty and repeatedly brought the tractor to a standstill.
Over the following weeks and months, we replaced the fuel injectors at least twice and the injector pump once, leaving us without our main work horse for lengthy periods when it was crucial to get on with field work, and at cost for parts and labour of more than £24k.
I was certain it was fuel related and therefore questioned Southern Farmers who manage our fuel deliveries. They put me in touch with several of their local suppliers and eventually I also spoke to the manager of the major fuel depot which supplied the Southeast, based in the Midlands who assured me it couldn’t possibly be a problem caused by their fuel.
All along I was assured the fuel was top quality and it must be the fault of our tractor, ‘possibly a Monday morning or Friday afternoon model’ they said! However, the day I got a call from Graham at Yeowarts’ who in those days supplied our MF tractors and who tried so hard to identify the cause of our problems, that 12 tractors had been delivered that Monday morning to their workshop with similar fuel injector and pump problems, I knew I was onto something.
I wrote to the Farmers Weekly, introduced the subject into my weekly column in the WSG. I got back to the guy in the Midlands who yet again assured me there was no problem with the fuel, and I updated Southern Farmers on the escalating problem.
It was quite evident that farms were being supplied with poor quality red diesel some of which was imported, and yes had added biofuel which today’s finely tuned engines could clearly not cope with. Our older tractors with their good old heavy-duty engines like the MF 390 and MF 6475 Dynashift remained unaffected.
In the end we gave up trying to fix the problem; too much damage had been done and too much money spent on trying to fix it, so we traded it in for the MF7718 S. On the day this big beast arrived in the yard I received a call from the manager of the fuel depot in the Midlands who came clean and told me he was receiving a flood of complaints like mine and the problem was ‘probably’ due to the introduction of a higher % of biofuels.
Sure enough when we sent yet another fuel sample from the farm tank for analysis, this time to an independent lab not the suppliers, they identified high traces of biofuel which clearly had caused the problem and destroyed what had been a perfectly good tractor.
We drained the tank again and refilled with high grade GT L diesel. Now each time I order a refill I insist on confirmation of its content. So far thankfully we have kept clear of further fuel problems.
The government as we know is insisting biofuels, Sustainable Aviation Fuel, be introduced into aviation kerosine on an escalating scale year on year; it has already begun at 2%.
When gas station petrol was changed some years ago from E5 to E10 many cars and motor bikes developed problems with fuel injectors and pumps. As one knowledgeable friend told me when I spoke to him earlier today when checking my facts, he said that at the time many drivers were sure this was done on purpose to get people to change to EVs faster than predicted. Cynical yes, but I suspect there could well be some truth in that.
The Government’s website tells us that Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is an airplane fuel alternative designed to cut lifecycle carbon emissions. It is almost chemically identical to traditional jet fuel and so directly replaces fossil fuel. It can be made from a variety of sources, including different types of waste, and by combining hydrogen with captured carbon. The biggest single contribution that will help us get to Net Zero is changing airline fuel to SAF – it is projected to account for around 40% of the total carbon reductions by 20501.
According to the UK Government SAF emits on average 70% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using fossil jet fuel on a lifecycle basis2. This could potentially become 100% in future when third generation Power-to-Liquid fuels are available (currently in small scale production).
My question is, do we really want to fly in aircraft with the risk of having dodgy fuel in their tanks? Is this helter skelter dive into Net Zero like all this government’s decisions to date an experiment into just how far they can manipulate the public, clearly thinking we are all as stupid and impractical as they are?
I think I will aim to keep my feet firmly on the Tera Ferma!
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