ITHACA, N.Y. — The New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI) and the Institute for Genomic Diversity (IGD) recently invited local farmers, engineers, agricultural professionals, and bioenergy business entrepreneurs to discuss the potential of producing sorghum as a bioenergy crop.
Sorghum — a naturally low-lignin grass related to maize and sugar cane — has proven highly productive under low fertilizer, water, and pest conditions, is widely adaptable to many climates and growing conditions, has a small carbon footprint, and grows where other grasses will not such as arid and nutrient-poor soils.
“It’s very drought tolerant. It grows in almost desert conditions in Africa. It requires little fertilizer because the crop is a multi-use crop, and as far as biofuels go, the grain and the stem sugar can be used directly for ethanol production. With the biomass, it can be used to make cellulosic ethanol, and one advantage the sorghum has in this context is its low-lignin content. It can also be used for direct combustion,” said project manager Dr. Sharon Mitchell.
Over the last two years NYFVI and IGD have performed on-going sorghum trials in both New York and Puerto Rico. In 2008, small plot trials in New York identified unimproved sorghum lines that equaled or exceeded biomass yields of commercial hybrids. These lines were then crossed with male sterile lines for producing hybrids. These new sorghum hybrid lines out-yielded their parent lines by 15 to 20 percent. This year, NYFVI will take the best hybrid sorghum lines and evaluate the biomass yields in farmer’s fields throughout New York state.
According to Mitchell, the project goals include producing a new bioenergy crop adapted to local growing conditions, re-evaluating high-yielding sorghum hybrids in larger plots in various New York state environments, providing information on cultivation, production, and economic issues, providing information on the New York biofuels industry, and developing economically feasible harvest and post-harvest procedures for accumulation, handling, and shipping of biomass to processing facilities.
“The reason why we think sorghum is so important is that it produces more biomass than anything else. It produces three or four dry tons more per hectare than corn does and yields a lot more than prairie grasses do. Sorghum is a really high biomass producer for fairly low input,” said Mitchell.
Further, Mitchell points out that sorghum has further positive attributes including simple genetics that allow easier breeding improvements, and it has a favorable photo period sensitivity that is adaptable to New York farming.
“Sorghum will not bloom if the days are long, so in upstate New York it will not bloom. So it means they just keep getting bigger and bigger and producing biomass instead of seeds or accumulating sugar,” said Mitchell.
CEO of SweetWater Ethanol, Jerry Horton, also appreciates the bioenergy potential of sorghum. SweetWater — founded in 2007 — is reinventing the process for ethanol production by building and operating portable processors that distill ensiled biomass right on the farms, and then ship only the concentrated ethanol feedstock instead of the whole corn. The advantages include a reduction in transportation costs and energy required for processing at the refinery, a bi-product that is an enhanced animal feed that remains on the farm, a reduction in the competition with corn for food, and a net-zero water usage.
Currently SweetWater is producing their products from corn, but have been working closely with IGD to include sorghum crops. Horton is seeking farmers with 500 or more acres to work with SweetWater on producing their products.
“We’re going to be purchasing at a value-based pricing. Everyone needs to make money or we don’t want to do it. If the farmer can’t make more money on this than corn, then there is no sense in doing it. You should just continue with corn, you know what that market is. If we can’t pay you more than what you would make for corn, it’s not worth it if you’re a farmer,” said Horton.
Horton also points out that he
Sex Chat intends to keep farming practices consistent.
The same machines that harvest the corn can be
Live Sex Chat used again in October to harvest Sorghum — which peaks after corn harvest.
“We’ll be located somewhere west of Rochester. This would create local living jobs, not construction jobs. We’ll build it here, fabricate processors here, grow it here, and use local farmers to grow the biomass. We’re going to refine it here and use regional refineries, and then sell it here through local distribution,” Horton said.
Horton also points out that he intends to keep farming practices consistent.
The same machines that harvest the corn can be used again in October to harvest Sorghum — which peaks after corn harvest.
For more information, or to participate in the project contact Sharon Mitchell at
sem30@cornell.edu, education and outreach specialist Theresa Fulton at
tf12@cornell.edu, or visit the Web at
www.swth2o.com/.
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