MilkMulch: investigating machinability of a novel casein-based fibre to enhance the productivity of ornamental horticulture

There are 300-400 growers of ornamental plants/trees in the UK. They employ 20k+ staff and grow plants/trees worth £1.54bn/year at farmgate prices (HTA,2023). However, their margins are squeezed: 52% of UK horticulturalists make under £25k in annual profits (ONS/DEFRA,2023). Plastic mulch-mats increase yields (typically 10%-30%) but collection/recycling is expensive, taking 16 hours/hectare(Eunomia/Deloitte,2021). MilkMulch will develop a first-of-a-kind compostable mulch-mat to enhance productivity in ornamental and vegetable horticulture before future roll-out to other geographies and applications. This 12 month R&D project "MilkMulch" (Apr-2025 to Mar-2026) is a single applicant project delivered by Grouse Fibres Ltd ("Grouse"), with subcontracted support from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), Cambridge. By 2030, Grouse will biorefine 17.4m litres/year of waste milk from UK dairies into 5,400tonnes of casein-based fibre. This will displace 447tonnes of agri-plastics, saving 1.6ktCO2eq and protecting 179ha of ornamental-growing soil from plastic contamination. Grouse will create 170x new jobs, and have annual revenues of £26.5m+.