All the grazing management tips you need
Subscribe to read this article and over 2,500 more!
If you're already a subscriber, log in here.
Grass for Gas: Bioenergy in your tank
Grass is fuel for livestock. That's pretty well understood at On Pasture. What we are g
I am generally opposed to using crops to make fuel. Being from the drylands of Eastern Colorado, I cannot put any figures in the cost estimate calculator. I have never used fertilizer or chemicals. I do know about mechanical costs and this procedure has several and usually producers estimate these too low.
Taking the grass off is depleting the soil of organic matter and diminishing soil life. This old saying is still apt. “He who sells hay is selling his soil.”
Methanol from corn is marginal and I believe this will be also. There will come a day when every acre will be need for human consumption. These acres will be best suited for cattle production.
Chip Hines
Grass for bioenergy is a chicken/egg issue. The other is without multiple buyers for the grass (switchgrass) there is alack of competition on price.
For slightly less yield than switchgrass, producers could grow big bluestem which has far superior forage quality and palatability over switchgrass, providing alternative marketing options for grazing, as hay or potentially biomass.
So far the grass biomass market simply is not offering enough financial incentive to make it worthwhile as a fuel IMO