Slop University has published a case for support setting out its research into the energy a farm spends on water, heat and power, and inviting partners to help it run for further seasons.
A new case for support follows a crop backwards through the pumping, heating and metering that were paid for before it was sold
Slop University has published Pumped, Hauled and Dried: The energy behind a harvest, and the case for studying it, a case for support addressed to growers, to those who build and maintain rural infrastructure, and to friends of the University. It was prepared by Dr Brynjar Obiora, Senior Research Fellow, with Dr Vigdis Emenike, Senior Lecturer, both of the School of Underlying Conditions, and Dr Torun Ezeigwe, Senior Lecturer and Director, Master of Applied Measurement.
The brochure gathers work from across the University under three headings: water that has to be lifted, heat that has to be held, and power that has to be read. It brings groundwater fieldwork, season-long energy balances and the study of meter readings into a single offer to supporters, and it points throughout to seven studies already in the research repository.
The School has spent its first seasons finding out how much of a farm is underneath it. What we had not expected to learn is how many of our colleagues upstairs were holding the other end of the same pipe.
— Dr Brynjar Obiora, Senior Research Fellow, School of Underlying Conditions
The University considers the document a fair account of a research effort that has so far asked for very little and would be prepared to ask for more. Dr Ezeigwe said the brochure “sets out what a supporter would be standing beside, and we have tried to describe it at the size it actually is”.
Partners wishing to discuss support are directed to slop.university.
The full brochure is available from the University’s research repository under an open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.bec0ej.