Maize is now accepted to be the most rapidly growing crop in the UK – but a crash in Cambridgeshire means there will be a little less of it going into anaerobic digesters (AD) locally. This tractor and trailer unit carrying chopped maize overturned at Littleport yesterday but fortunately eye witnesses said the driver escaped injury.
Maize has become the main feedstock for AD plants and with the growing number of these in the Fens, the roads carrying harvested maize have never been busier.
“The trailer is currently sitting on its side with its load spilt over verge,” one passer-by observed yesterday.
“Still pretty clear, though. Shouldn’t cause too many problems.”
Another said: “The driver looked okay, standing beside the tractor when I went past, I don’t think the tractor is okay though as it looked pretty twisted.”
One resident observed on a social media post: “From what I was told and saw, the tractor wasn’t speeding, and to be honest we can see the A10 from where we live, and I haven’t seen many going excessively fast.”
She had these words for the driver.
“You all do a good job and yes there is a handful that take the P, but you get that in any job,” she said.
The NFU estimates that maize is grown on 220,000 hectares in the UK. In 1973, for comparison, the UK had just 8,000 hectares given over to maize but by 2014 this had grown to 183,000 hectares.
“It is a vital crop both as a highly nutritious animal feed and the highest energy yield feedstock for anaerobic digestion,” says the NFU.
Maize produces high yields, both per hectare as a crop and per cubic meter of biogas.
