Finishing almost 800 bulls/year and 750,000 poultry/year just north of Clermont-Ferrand, France, is Jean-Sebastian Lhospitalier, the owner of the farming enterprise Méthélec.
By January 2023, Méthélec aims to be producing enough renewable energy to supply the needs of 100,000 people.
The site, located at Petit Rollet, has a saying that, when translated to English, reads: “In addition to feeding you, your local agriculture provides you with energy.”
This week, Agriland paid a visit to the farm while attending the Sommet de l’Élevage livestock show.
The facility claims the title of the largest on-farm renewable energy production site in all of France.
Speaking to Agriland on the trip (through a French-English translator) Jean-Sebastian explained that he started out as a beef farmer and in 2007, he began thinking about diversifying his business.
What is unique about the farm is that money is being made both above and below the livestock. The dung is used to generate methane gas while the solar-panels, that cover every shed on the farm, generate renewable energy.
Jean-Sebastian told Agriland that in 2016, the farm’s anaerobic digester produced its first biogas and the farm has also since diversified into poultry with a chicken and duck fattening operation on-site too.
The farm business has an annual turnover of €2 million while the overall company (including the energy production) has a turnover of €4.5-€5 million/year with a margin of €300,000 last year.
Méthélec has 20 full-time employees and claims to also provide indirect employment to well over 100 people in the region.
The bull beef operation
This particular on-site cattle-finishing facility has been in operation since December 2014, and can accommodate 400 cattle at any one time. It is finishing approximately 790 bulls/year on a ’20 cattle in, 20 cattle out’ basis. The shed has 40 pens with 10 cattle/pen.
The bull finishing shed is located close to the anaerobic digester and is covered in solar panels @AgrilandIreland pic.twitter.com/wsAfrQf4I6
— Breifne O’Brien (@breifneobrien1) October 5, 2022
The bull-finishing shed is located close to the anaerobic digester and is covered in solar panels.
The entire shed is dry bedded and the dung is cleaned out every 15 days and used in the anaerobic digester to produce renewable gas. 100% of the beef from the farm is exported to Italy.
The protocol for cattle entering the farm is as follows:
- Algo Searup and Pulmofit: 3-5 hours after arrival;
- Alicox: 28 days after arrival;
- Rispoval 4 and Rispoval Pasturella;
- Bravoxin or Miloxan;
- Nemisol injectable.
The cattle handling facility is located in the center of the shed and is designed to minimise stress on both the operator and the livestock.
No grass is fed and a cereal-based Total Mixed Ration (TMR) is fed to the livestock using a diet feeder. The cost of the ration is €2.20/kg dry matter (DM).
Animals are bought for the finishing unit at approximately 430kg at 10 months of age and are kept from 4-5 months.
At finishing, bulls are approximately 700kg, with an average carcass weight of 441kg and an average carcass grade of U-. The factory beef price mentioned was €5.10- €5.30/kg depending on a number of factors.
The aim is for an average daily liveweight gain of 1.8kg/day while on the farm. The cattle bought in have an average daily gain (ADG) of 1.18kg/day from birth to weaning.
The purchase price of the bulls generally ranges from €1,300-€1,500. The target difference between purchase price and sale price is €530 after approximately 186 days on the farm.
The on-farm Anaerobic digestor
Jean-Sebastian Lhospitalier admitted that the most profitable enterprise on the farm is the anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas production, however methane is not sold from the farm.
The methane is burned in a 2,000hp CAT engine weighing 12t that generates electricity.
The thermal energy produced from burning the biogas is used to heat the livestock buildings.
Approximatley half of the overall energy produced on the farm is sold and the other half is used on the farm.
The electricity is sold to the French government at a special rate. The clause to the deal is the carbon dioxide (CO2) credits or ‘carbon credits’ are property of the French government. These carbon credits are used to reduce the country’s carbon footprint.
Jean-Sebastian said that he has plans to further expand his renewable energy operations and “is hoping” to get 50% funding from the European Union for his next project.
Feedstock
The feedstocks for the AD plant come from a variety of sources, including the farm and organic waste from local industries, farmers and schools.
An agreement with farmers involved in the French co-operative valued at €5 billion, Groupe Limagrain, also sees Limagrain farmers supply the AD plant with feedstock.
There is a total of five entry points where feedstock can be fed into the anaerobic digester.
Before entering the digester, feedstock is mixed and ground down in a separate tank at 70° to under 12mm in diameter.
20t of feedstock enters the digester every four hours. The organic matter spends 20 days at 50° in the digester. This takes 85% of the methane from the product.
At the end of the process, the feedstock, which is now called digestate, spends another 20 days in a separate tank to remove odors.
After the gas has been extracted from the feedstock, 70% of the digestate is turned to pasteurised compost that can be used for gardening or fertiliser and the remaining 30% liquid is used as fertiliser.
The solid digestate is similar to compost and can be sold to local farmers as organic fertiliser and the digestate has a nutrient value of 5:3:2 N:P:K (nitrogen:phosphorus:potassium)/t DM.
The gas
The gas product at the end of the AD process is 60% CH4 and 40% CO2. To sell the methane (CH4), it must be purified to reach 99%.
When the gas comes off the feedstock, it is soaked in vapor and the methane gas is separated from the hot steam in a special apparatus that condenses the steam.
The anaerobic digester is producing methane currently and the business aims to also be producing and selling CO2 and hydrogen by the end of the year.
Some of the digestate from the anaerobic digester is sold to local farms as organic fertiler. By January 2023, as mentioned, the operation aims to be producing enough energy to meet the needs of 100,000 people.