Burning Bio News

Study shows that increases in crop production technology from 1961 to 2005 have lowered GHG emissions. While emissions from factors such as fertilizer production and application have increased, the net effect of higher yields has avoided emissions of up to 161 gigatons of carbon (GtC) (590 GtCO2e) since 1961. Each dollar invested in agricultural yields is estimated to have resulted in 68 fewer kgC (249 kgCO2e) emissions relative to 1961 technology ($14.74/tC, or ∼$4/tCO2e), avoiding 3.6 GtC (13.1 GtCO2e) per year. This analysis indicates that investment in yield improvements compares favorably with other commonly proposed mitigation strategies.

The U.S. ethanol industry continues to see improved efficiency, according to a new report released by USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist. Nitrogen use measured on a per bushel basis has declined by about 20% since the mid-90s. Similarly, all direct energy components have declined by about 50% since the mid-90s. Together, the nitrogen and direct energy reductions result in a 30% decline in the energy required to produce a bushel of corn. Recent energy use estimates show that the ratio of energy in ethanol to the external energy used to produce ethanol is about 1.4, even without allowing for the processing component of the byproduct credit. After fully allowing for heat used to produce byproducts, the energy ratio is between 1.9 and 2.3. If biomass is used at the plant for some of the power, the energy balance ratio increases to 2.8, even using the lower byproduct credit from the regression results.

According to the new Rabobank U.S. Farm & Ranch Survey, 72 percent of U.S. agricultural producers report that they have taken a range of measures on sustainable ag practices. “U.S producers understand that to be in the ag business for the long term means taking care of the land,” said Rabobank Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Vice President Sterling Liddell. The most significant steps are using direct seeding (64 percent), minimizing use of chemicals (42 percent), crop rotation or diversification (39 percent) and reduced energy inputs (39 percent).

Commercial flower growers want to tap into the growing market of consumers looking for sustainable products, but those growers aren’t willing to go through a difficult and costly certification to do it at this time. Purdue University faculty Roberto Lopez, Jennifer Dennis, and Maria Marshall, found that nearly two-thirds of U.S. growers aren’t interested in spending the time and money to become certified as sustainable. One-third hadn’t even heard of certification organizations such as Veriflora and MPS, which can charge thousands of dollars for certifications.

Expansion of 28 locally-grown fruits and vegetables examined by Dave Swensen, Iowa State University. The states studied were Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The study showed that a significant amount of produce could be grown locally, but success depends on the development of new infrastructures in Midwest communities to advance the use of local food, locally.

Funding is available from four USDA Rural Development renewable energy programs authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Farm Bill). USDA is accepting applications for grants and loan guarantees in the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) until June 30, 2010. In fiscal year 2009, this program helped fund 1,485 REAP projects in 50 states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Western Pacific Islands.

USDA will begin conducting the first national On-Farm Energy Production Survey this week. The most recent agriculture census counted more than 20,000 farms and ranches that were producing renewable energy via solar panels, wind turbines and methane digesters. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is mailing the survey forms to farm and ranch operators nationwide who indicated on the 2007 Census of Agriculture that they were generating renewable energy.

Phil McLain, Iredell County, NC, added a seed oil facility to his farm (for processing oil), and it has opened up new markets for canola. McLain farmed 1,200 acres of canola last year. Canola produces more oil than soybeans and offers a good alternative to wheat because it adds marketing diversity and is easier to control. The McLains originally intended to use the oil in the production of biodiesel, but there is a higher value in extracting oil for cooking.

Iowa State University economist Mike Duffy has developed an analysis of estimated production costs for switchgrass in Iowa, and then changes some of the assumptions which may be more or less applicable to your operation. Based on some initial conservative assumptions such as 4 tons per acre yield, production costs are $82/ton. Other advances in yield, land cost, and storage cost, all could lower the cost of producing switchgrass. –mj: On a per ton basis this is not a very compelling price. It means that the sale price has to be higher for folks to grow it.

Air officials for years have blamed dairy cow emissions for the unusually high ozone levels in California’s San Joaquin Valley, but a new study points more to what goes into the animals than what comes out. University of California, Davis researchers, however, found that the bigger ozone culprit appears to be millions of tons of fermenting cattle feed. This previously unrecognized source is likely the reason why ozone levels have not dropped even as the region has implemented control programs, scientists said.

A new Cayuga County (NY) digester facility on County House Road in Sennett, NY will convert manure into energy that will heat nearby county buildings. The Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District will begin building the $9.5 million dollar sustainable-energy digester plant later this month. Soil and Water received about $6.2 million in federal stimulus money — nearly double the amount it anticipated — and about $3.5 million in federal and state grants and aid. –mj: I have a soft spot in my heart for community digesters, but am not sure how $10 million dollars of public benefit will be generated from the 10 million of public cost?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Awards for sustainability to each of two Clarkson University (NY) teams that participated in the Sixth Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The first Clarkson project, “Farm Waste to Energy: A Sustainable Solution for Small-Scale Farms,” optimizes viable anaerobic digester technology for diary farms in cold climates with 50 or fewer cows. The second team project, “Sustainable Year-Round Food Production in Cold Climates,” includes the design, feasibility, analysis, and impact assessment of a pilot controlled-environment, high rise farm. Each team will receive a $75,000 grant from the EPA to further develop their design, implement it in the field, or move it to the marketplace.

U.S. farm groups and lawmakers must consider whether fundamental change is needed in farm subsidies that date from the Depression, said the head of the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday after the opening work on the new farm bill, due in two years. – mj: The Farm Bill is the legislation that determines the ’subsidies’ that US farmers receive for their crops. It is always a lively debate and generally poorly understood. With the advent of biofuels and the wild economy, production agriculture is smack in the middle.

Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after poring over 17 years’ worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate. Other studies have looked at energy efficiencies for crops over shorter time periods, but this MSU study is the first to consider energy balances of an entire cropping system over many years. The results are published in the April 19 online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology. – mj: This is an interesting academic analysis, but some of the popular press conclusions I have seen like growing corn for food (instead of fuel or feed) and growing alfalfa for fuel (instead of feed) are not consistent with the economics (supply and demand) for these products.

On February 1, Columbia, MO, passes an ordinance decriminalizing backyard chickens. This ordinance repeals a 1964 city ordinance, which required a half acre for every chicken. Mary Stilwell, one of the forces behind changing the ordinance to allow backyard chickens, estimates there are currently only 50 or so chickens within the city limits. and predicts the chicken population to increase to 100 by the end of the year. – mj: Part of the localization of food and energy production. Local food and fuel independence may be small but it will be significant. It will also fall through the cracks of current data collection.

The number of dairies in California has plummeted by more than 500 in the past decade, with many moving to other states enticing them with promises of lower costs and simpler regulations. Eight states, ranging from Idaho to Iowa, have been courting dairies from California, the nation’s largest milk producer. The reason is clear: Cows mean cash for local economies. Mike Meissen, vice president for value added agriculture for the Iowa Area Development Group, estimated each dairy cow has an economic impact of $15,000 a year. “So if a thousand cows go into a county, that’s $15 million.” While officials in other states offer California farmers a number of reasons to consider moving, one of the biggest incentives seems to be the promise of fewer regulations. — mj: There is a real cost to over-regulation. Regulation is ultimately paid for by wealth creation …unless it leaves.

Understanding biomass productivity on specific landscape positions is essential to realizing the highest financial returns on the integration of herbaceous and woody biomass crops at the field scale according to a recent University of Minnesota study. Crops evaluated in the study were alfalfa, corn stover, corn, grain, willow (two clones), cottonwood, poplar and switchgrass. Landscape positions included summit (excellent water drainage but visible erosion), depositional (receives water from two hill slopes and is characterized by poor drainage and accumulated topsoil), flat (poorly drained but has retained topsoil), and four hill slopes with east, south, southwest and north aspects.

The Osage Bio ethanol from barley plant in Hopewell, VA, has spurred renewed interest in barley production among farmers and is the impetus for a multi-faceted Bio Energy Cropping Systems research project by a diverse team of Virginia Tech researchers. “The primary reason more Virginia farmers don’t grow barley is a lack of market. Now, Osage Bio is offering a stable market, a fair price for barley (75 percent of corn future prices) and more growers are interested in growing the crop,” says Virginia Tech researchers David Holshouser.

More soybean, corn and cotton acres this spring, fewer wheat and sorghum acres — that’s the essence of what farmers told USDA about their planting intentions this spring, USDA reported. Corn acreage is expected at 88.8 million acres, up 2.32 ma from a year ago; soybean acreage is expected to total 78.1 million acres, up 0.65 ma; cotton acreage is seen at 10.51 ma, up 1.37 ma, and all wheat acres are expected to fall 5.3 ma, to 53.83 million acres. The report should be viewed as neutral to bullish for corn and beans and neutral to bearish for wheat, said DTN Analyst John Sanow.

A memo earlier this month from USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber to his boss, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, should give all caught up in the renewable energy and climate change debate pause. Glauber said USDA and EPA are going back and re-evaluating the assumptions that went into an economic model that theoretically plotted the consequences of climate legislation, particularly cap-and-trade provisions.