| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| welshboy454 |
Gorse/Furze Fuel and feedJust been reading about the capability of gorse as a fuel or feed for cattle/horses.Apparently it has half the protein of oats and can be harvested on a two year rotation yielding " 2000 20lb faggots from an acre" so about 9 tons per acre per year. Cattle and horses love it once processed for them. Furze can be used as fodder for animals. It was said that an acre of furze could provide enough winter feed for six horses. This is a quote " I tie the branches of gorse in bundles and hang them up for horses. This is an excellent addition to their winter feed and our Welsh Cobs would always leave their hay until they had finished the gorse. It also takes some time for them to eat as they are careful due to the spines; this again is a real advantage in winter and provides them with something to do. They will peel and eat every strip of bark that they can reach The bundle of peeled sticks (a faggot) which is what you are left with when the horses have finished with it is great firewood." As a fuel it has a high concentration of oil in its leaves and branches, and so catches fire easily and burns well, giving off a heat almost equal to that of charcoal. The question is how do you harvest it using modern machines ? I wonder about a rice reaper ? It grows well with us -difficulty keeping it down http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/FRA_GAE/FURZE_GORSE.html |
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| Treacodactyl |
Re: Gorse/Furze Fuel and feed
Perhaps something like the machines that harvest short-rotation coppice (SRC) or even forage maize? I've also got access to a fair bit of gorse but I'm wondering how to burn it usefully on a domestic scale. I know it has been used to bring bread ovens quickly up to temperature in the past, and I suppose you can chip it and get a bio-mass boiler system but I would like a simple stove that can run happily on home made faggots. |
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| gz |
Possibly you look for a purpose made old machine?
Or at least have a look at one in a museum |
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| welshboy454 |
Thanks for the replies.
I was thinking more along these lines http://www.toursgallery.com/Japan_Grand_Tour/2/rice_harvester.jpg Anybody know what they are called ? |
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| welshboy454 |
Thinking about processing gorse I just wonder if an oil screw press would extract the oil content leaving the pulp residue as feed.
Bio diesel ? Anybody know the oil content ? |
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| Treacodactyl |
I would guess the oils are not sufficient to extract but just make the wood more flammable than others.
PFAF are very good at tracking down uses and the don't mention oil form gorse. Here's their details: http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Ulex+europaeus |
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| Tavascarow |
I would have thought the best tool for cutting gorse would be a decent strimmer with a brush cutter blade attatched.
My goats used to like the young green shoots of gorse but left the wood alone completely. 
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| bodger |
I have just such a machine. Traditionally in the area that I live in, gorse was harvested and chopped as fodder for horses.
The trunks of gorse, if you can call them that, make good aromatic fire wood. |
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| welshboy454 |
Spot on Treacodactyl -although every gorse reference empasises a high oil content it is only 2-4% which to me is low http://www.co.lincoln.or.us/publicworks/pdf_veg/gorse.pdf |