“I’m Matthew Dalton, Managing Director of Dalton Seeds. The business was established by my grandfather in 1952, and I’m the third generation Dalton. We’re a proudly independent family business, the largest independent of its type in the country.”
“We started out selling directly to farmers, but since the 1970s we’ve been selling seed wholesale. In the 90’s we expanded into toll processing – working with other people’s products – as well as storage and distribution. Today, around 50% of the seed we process is for our own business and 50% for other customers, adding up to around 30,000 tonnes in total.
“We handle all the main crops you’d expect: wheat and barley, oats, rapeseed, beans and peas. We also process vining peas for household names such as Birds Eye. As the business has grown, so has our energy demand, so that’s driven a lot of our thinking around renewables.”
“The machinery we use draws a lot of power, so renewables were an obvious area for us to explore. We’re now on our third tranche of solar panels. The first was a 50 kW array installed around 10 years ago under the Feed-In-Tariff scheme. That system is fully paid off now and making money.
“We’ve installed two larger arrays on our new warehouses built as part of our expansion into storage. The total solar capacity on site is now around 500 kW. When we were putting the warehouses up, the numbers stacked up to include solar panels from the outset.
“I’m currently in conversation with AF’s John Wadeson about installing battery storage. While there are clear cost-saving benefits, the main driver is managing our electricity draw from the substation. Installing a new substation would be extremely expensive, so batteries offer a way to dampen the total draw demand at peak times.
“The biggest challenge will be in August when we’re operating some of our machinery 24 hours a day. We also have 8 EV car chargers on site when they’re all pulling 10 kW each, it’s a significant percentage of the 500 kW limit on our substation.
“We’ve made some energy saving measures where possible, such as PIR sensors on our warehouse lighting, so that after 20 or 30 seconds of no activity the lights go out. In July, August and September, we can get very close to generating our total usage, but because of how much power the site uses our electricity bills are still £20-£30,000 a month.
“Even so, I’m pretty happy with the payback periods of five to seven years. And the potential cost saving of installing batteries rather than a new substation could approach seven figures!”
“AF’s roots in agriculture mean the team understands the markets, as well as the drivers and challenges of agriculture. Having suppliers who understand our business and offer competitive prices is key.
“From an administrative point of view it’s efficient. The website is easy to navigate, and myAF is particularly useful for tracking bills and reviewing spend.
“The AF team is responsive. I’ve had a lot of interface with John Wadeson on our renewables projects. John is very diligent and good at stepping back and saying, “actually, you might want to consider this” rather than just leaving me to interface with the supplier. I’ve also worked with Greg Purling on vehicle procurement and his approach has been equally professional.”
“I didn’t start the relationship with AF, but I choose to continue it because of the cost savings and service. AF is a large buying group with significant clout across different markets, which makes them competitive.
