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Jim

Posted 9/28/2007 10:56 (#211168)
Subject: ethanol - misleading information in October National Geographic

Driftless SW Wisconsin

I'm posting this here rather than on Market Talk because it really has to do with crop production more than marketing.

The October issue of National Geographic magazine, a widely respected publication, has an ear of corn on the cover and a major article on ethanol from various crops.

I was disappointed however to see the section on corn based ethanol seemed very negative. It talks about a negative energy balance for corn where it takes 1.3 times the energy to produce a gallon of ethanol as you get out of it. I'm not sure where this number comes from but it is a key figure for those of us in cornbelt agriculture. It also talks about increased soil erosion, squeezing cattlemen out of business and increasing the price of a box of corn flake breakfast cereal as negative effects of corn based ethanol.

The truth is that you can generate about any number you want as a corn ethanol energy balance. There are some newer very efficient distilling processes coming on line however around 50% of the energy required to produce a gallon of ethanol comes from the fuel and fertilizer required to grow the corn crop used as raw material.

We have field data that shows strip till for example can reduce the fuel used betwen fall harvest and a planted emerged corn crop the next spring from about 5 gal/acre to about 0.5 gal/acre, a factor of 10. The article focused on Nebraska where often folks are raising "good corn" with at or above 300 units of N fertilizer per acre, maybe 1.2 units/bu.

We have field data from several corn belt growers showing that, by locating the fertilizer when and where the plant needs it with strip till or other new methods, you can grow "good corn" with 0.6 to 0.7 units of N per bu corn grain, about half of the number used in the 1.3 negative calculation. N fertilizer is a major source of energy input since it generally comes from natural gas. The amount of N used per bushel has major effects on the overall process - and nitrates in our well water.

The article also talks positively about ethanol processes that use the whole corn plant. In my opinion that would be a disaster, reducing organic matter and increasing fertilizer requirements and soil erosion.

As far as corn grain based ethanol "increasing soil erosion" as the article claims, I believe one can generate whatever data one wants on that question. I personally have seen continuous corn in a strip till system which does amazing things to improve the soil. I'll post a picture below from an Iowa customer. His soils get better every year with all that residue that corn provides. Of course the key is to develop a production system which can operate in high levels of corn residue but I think with strip till we are getting there on that front too.

Corn grain based ethanol has and is providing local, transparent markets for local grain. The price is often posted out by the road. Corn prices (3.50-4.00/bu) have steadied at levels where I do not believe they are unbearable for the cattleman and the effect on a box of corn flakes is not even worth mentioning, maybe 2-3 cents??? Yet at these prices grain corn based ethanol can revitalize rural American towns and school districts over time.

A Toyota Prius type hybrid vehicle running on E-85 at about 50 mpg means we can get about 300 miles per gallon of oil based gasoline. Ethanol is important to midwest American agriculture, it is too bad articles like this seem to be written with incomplete information. jmho.

Here is a picture of what continuous corn in Iowa CAN look like. This customer applies a total of about 0.6-0.7 lb of N per bu of yield as I recall last time we spoke. I will add some photos from MN also to show this is not a one-location system. Corn from this system dramatically changes the conclusions of the National Geographic ethanol article.

Jim at Dawn

Edited by Jim 9/28/2007 13:05