24/06/2009 (Farmers Guardian) - IT takes 200 to 250 litres of crude oil to manufacture a typical large farm tyre, but Goodyear has been looking at other materials to decouple tyre prices from mineral oil.

The result is the BioTred 2, which is uses 25 per cent palm oil for the tyre construction.

A tyre using corn starch was first shown at SIMA in 2003. The alternative material was used for just the lugs then, but this was not able to match the performance of a conventional tyre so it was a case of going back to the drawing board. Having looked at 14 alternative oils, it was decided to use palm oil as this particular type is not used for food production.

The BioTred 2 uses palm oil throughout the tyre construction and has undergone rigorous testing to prove its worth.

Mark Turner, Goodyear’s training and marketing specialist for farm and industrial tyres says if there was a change in mineral oil prices, they could put the BioTred 2 tyres into production right now.