LET’S TALK ABOUT GAS

At Wyke, we pride ourselves on our heritage and doing things the right way, but that doesn’t mean we’re stuck in the past. Over the past two decades, we’ve become leaders in sustainable farming and cheesemaking, ensuring that we give back to the land more than we take. And at the centre of all this is our amazing anaerobic digester.

At Wyke, we’re entirely self-sufficient in energy by producing biomethane with our anaerobic digester. This breaks down organic by-products from our cheesemaking, manure and also waste from other local suppliers and converts it into natural, green energy. In addition to powering our dairy, it also produces enough power to feed 6,000 homes in nearby Bruton when it’s injected back into the grid with Wales and West Utilities. In addition, it also creates organic fertiliser as a waste product, which we can then use our fields.

Producing our own green energy is the best way to help decarbonise our business and to achieve our own goal of net zero. We’re also keen to share our example and to encourage other farmers to adopt this technology. With Wales & West Utilities, we’ve put our campaigner hat on and are sharing the message. Currently, only 2.5% of organic farm waste is going into producing biogas in this country, and as Rich Clothier, our MD and a third-generation cheesemaker, says, “It could help to reduce carbon emissions on some farms by up to 20 per cent. There’s a huge untapped potential to utilise these waste streams, help meet UK emission targets and produce more home-generated green energy.”

Here at Wyke, we’re proud to have championed green energy for over a decade now and we have lots of plans for the future. We’re about to expand our production further with the opening of another Combined Heat & Power Plant in nearby Bruton, and by creating more storage capacity for feeding our anaerobic digester. For us, it’s an extension of the way our family has always farmed and made cheese, looking after nature as nature looks after us.

You can find out more about how we look after the land in our Green By Nature section here. And if you’d like to see our anaerobic digester in action, why not come and visit us? You can book here - Visitor Centre

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