Alternative fuels > Straight Vegetable Oil
AT LAST THE TRUTH!
rgroves:
--- Quote from: oldnslow on June 13, 2006, 06:29:57 PM ---AFAIK, Canola is cost competetive to produce. The demand for Canola could easily revive the farms in the midwest. If I lived there, I would be out scouting for farms for sale right now.
--- End quote ---
Take a look at "High Plains Journal" or "Grass and Grain", any issue. There is a staggering number of farm auction sales, from retiring farmers or the estates of them who didn't get to retirement. I wish somebody was buying this land, other than the big players. Better yet, I wish there was another generation of guys willing to take over the farm from dad. But that's not happening. Vegetable oil might end up saving the farm economy out here, but for the moment all I see is same same.
Sorry for the digression and the rant.
Russell Groves
oldnslow:
Russell I wish I lived out there. I work for a company owned by one of the largest co-ops in the USA and they sell crop inputs. The fuel used in some of our trucks is blended with canola and the savings are considerable.
We have some of the best farmland and climate worldwide for producing these types of oil crops. If it works well and is cost competetive perhaps now is the time to produce more and sell it for fuel/lubricants ie non food markets. The longer crude and gas stay high, the more viable it becomes. Hmmm did the price of gas just level off and drop a penny or two recently? I guess we are in the middle of the growing season.
Some might think, hell these guys need some grant money.... but really, farmers are extremely resourceful and don't need no "stinkin" grant money. If a crop can be grown in a way that produces a viable return they can take it from there.
I am guessing but I bet many farms that went under did so because of debt mismanagement. They were chasing markets that were being manipulated by subsidies that didn't come through. Are ther any articles in the "Grass and Grain" about alternative uses for vegetable oils? It's hard to see a way out when there is no money, no jobs and you struggle just to live. Been there. I need to look at those two mags you mentioned.
Later.......
rgroves:
--- Quote from: oldnslow on June 13, 2006, 10:21:10 PM ---Some might think, hell these guys need some grant money.... but really, farmers are extremely resourceful and don't need no "stinkin" grant money. If a crop can be grown in a way that produces a viable return they can take it from there.
I am guessing but I bet many farms that went under did so because of debt mismanagement. They were chasing markets that were being manipulated by subsidies that didn't come through. Are ther any articles in the "Grass and Grain" about alternative uses for vegetable oils? It's hard to see a way out when there is no money, no jobs and you struggle just to live. Been there. I need to look at those two mags you mentioned.
--- End quote ---
What these guys DON'T need is grant money. They've spent so many years growing cheap cereal grains at a loss, waiting for the subsidy check, and bitching about the government and the local banker-- they don't know any other way. There are some counties in western KS where the average age of a farmer is 72, and it's a rare person that age who will change anything.
Debt mismanagement, yes, combined with hidebound tradition, lack of curiosity about anything, and the willingness to buy new machinery whenever the old stuff gets a scratch on it. It is TOTALLY contrary to any business principles.
Once in a while you'll see an article in a farm magazine about renewable energy. That's how farmers know it's always ten years away from being practical.
I have a few customers who are farmers, who are growing oilseeds and using my presses to extract the oil. It is my deepest hope that their example will generate some imitators. Upcoming issue of Farmshow will profile one of those guys, and I'll post the link to it when it shows up.
rg
Halfnuts:
Russel,
I was driving through west Kansas and E. Colorado on a state highway south of I-70 last summer and saw lots of fields of small yellow flowers. I figured they might be an oil seed crop of some sort. Didn't look like much else was growing in that area except some wheat and an occasional pronghorn.
Halfnuts
mobile_bob:
likely sunflowers
bob g
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