Dry July weather is causing damage to the crops of British Columbia, Canada, CTV British Columbia reported on Thursday. Opinder Bhatti of O'Bhatti Farm said he expects his sweet corn will yield about 40 percent less than last year. "We have three irrigation units running 24 hours a day, but we can't keep up, because the wind and the sunshine is sucking up the moisture," Bhatti said. After hot temperatures hit in early July, Bhatti had to plow under about 70 percent of his pea and bean fields. One crop that is thriving in the Fraser Valley heat is blueberries, according to Rhonda Driediger of Driediger Farms. "The quality so far this year has been excellent, due to this wonderful weather we've been having," said Driediger. Blueberry growers across British Columbia can expect a good crop of berries, she said. About 85 to 90 million pounds could be produced in the province this growing season, she estimated.
(CTV British Columbia, July 29, 2010)
(http://www.ctvbc.ca/…)
Researchers in Finland grew beets as an experiment using sustainable fertilizer -- human urine, Scientific American reported on Friday. Surendra Pradhan and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski, environmental scientists at the University of Kuopio used a combination of urine and wood ash, which they found worked just as good as traditional mineral fertilizer. "It is totally possible to use human urine as a fertilizer instead of industrial fertilizer," said Heinonen-Tanski, whose group used urine to also grow cucumbers, cabbage and tomatoes. Urine contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which are nutrients plants need to thrive. There is, of course, a steady supply of this man-made plant food: an adult on a typical diet urinates enough in a year to full three standard bathtubs. Despite a small group of organic gardeners in the U.S. and Europe already fertilizing with urine at home, using it to fertilize in large-scale farming may never happen because it would involve drastically remodeling sewage systems in order to collect and transport liquid waste.
(Scientific American, July 23, 2010)
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/…)
Novomer Inc. announced Wednesday is has been awarded $18.4M in federal funding from the Department of Energy to convert waste CO2 into various sustainable polymers, Market Watch reported. The CO2 would be used to manufacture such products as bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, as well as other wood and metal surface applications. The CO2 for the work will be sourced from ethanol production facilities. In January, 12 companies were picked for Phase One of the project focusing on experiments and preliminary designs for pilot plants. Novomer was chosen to move into Phase Two in which the company and its partners will design, construct and operate a pilot-scale facility.
(Market Watch, July 29, 2010)
(http://www.marketwatch.com/…)
Hay could be a possible feedstock for ethanol and offset some of the environmental concerns associated with corn, according to scientists at the Department of Agriculture's Dairy Forage Research Center in St. Paul, Minn. The researchers believe that farmers could rotate alfalfa and corn, instead of soybeans and corn, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported. Alfalfa may be able to replenish nitrogen that corn takes from soil and could allow farmers to use less fertilizer on corn, and could also limit erosion since the crop would be left in the ground for several years before being replanted to corn.
(Zanesville Times Recorder, July 27, 2010)
(http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/…)
Zimbabwe's government announced Tuesday it will open up the country's energy sector to private investors as independent power producers or public-private partnership arrangements, according to the Global Times. The country's energy sector faces serious challenges, as peak demand is about 2,100 megawatts of electricity, and the energy sector only produces about 1,100 megawatts on average. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said the country's erratic power supplies are hindering economic development, but said the government is working on other initiatives to ease the situation, such as refurbishing a coal-fired power station and expanding power generation at hydropower stations.
(Global Times, July 28, 2010)
(http://world.globaltimes.cn/…)
European ethanol production is continuing to increase, Ethanol Producer reported. While ethanol production growth was nearly 60 percent in 2008, 2009 saw the European Union's production continuing to grow by 31 percent. The total 2009 EU production was an estimated 3.7 billion liters, up from 2.8 billion liters in 2008. France remains the large EU ethanol producer with 1.250 billion liters, followed by Germany with 750 million liters, and Spain with 465 liters. Austria and Sweden more than doubled their ethanol production in 2009, ranking them fourth and fifth respectively. In addition to the growth in production, total EU consumption also grew 23 percent in 2009, reaching 4.3 billion liters (1.6 billion gallons).
(Ethanol Producer, July 28, 2010)
(http://ethanolproducer.com/…)
Underwriters Laboratory has given final safety certification to new ethanol blender pumps from Dresser Wayne and Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Domestic Fuel reported. The Dresser Wayne pump has a dual hose, offering low blends on one hose for conventional vehicles and mid to high-level blends on the other hose for flexible fuel vehicles. The Gilbarco Encore blender also offers a flexible fuel option. The new pumps will dispense mid to high ethanol blends along with conventional gasoline, and will help retailers meet increasing demand by renewable fuel.
(Domestic Fuel, July 27, 2010)
(http://domesticfuel.com/…)
Green racing research data from the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago is proving successful, according to automotive researcher Forrest Jehlik. Jehlik has been crunching numbers collected during three days of testing at Florida's New Smyrna Speedway, the Daytona Beach News-Journal Online reported. The mission of the research was to produce more horsepower, generate less harmful exhaust and use racing as a platform to show the public that a fuel injection system combined with a renewable fuel could be as fast or faster than what is currently used by shorter-track racers. Researchers found that the fuel-injected, ethanol-powered test car had better lap times and more torque than conventional race cars.
(Daytona Beach News-Journal Online, July 28, 2010)
(http://www.news-journalonline.com/…)
A group of environmental organizations and companies are banding together to discourage Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from promoting widespread use of the E15 ethanol blend, Biofuels International reported. The groups opposing E15 include small engine manufacturers and food producers who believe that more testing is needed before increasing the ethanol blend, as they are concerned E15 will cause some engines to stall. The campaigners are calling for complete scientific testing, including engine and fuel pump durability, and vapor leakage from parked cars.
(Biofuels International, July 28, 2010)
(http://www.biofuels-news.com/…)
The hot and dry weather Pennsylvania has seen this summer has caused some of the state's crops to struggle to survive while others have thrived in the hot and dry field conditions, the Williamsport Sun Gazette reported on Wednesday. Norman Conrad, a Penn State University Extension agent in Union County, said the recent dry and hot conditions have stunted corn growth in many areas of the state but other crops have fared better. "Cool and normal conditions in the spring have led to thriving wheat, barley and oats yields," Conrad said. Richard Snyder, who farms near Montoursville, said his fields of sweet corn, pumpkins, rye and turf grass have done fairly well this growing season. "Only the turf went dormant, but it will come back in a week or so with the rains," Snyder said. The warm and dry weather also allowed him to harvest his rye will no delays. Williamsport has seen 20.6 inches of rainfall since the first of the year and normal is 23.9 inches, so the region is 3.3 inches below normal.
(Williamsport (Pa.) Sun Gazette, July 28, 2010)
(http://www.sungazette.com/…)
Deer can cause hundreds of dollars of damage to a field, but there are practices that farmers can employee to limit these losses, the Midwest Producer reported on Tuesday. "Deer love newly forming ears," said Scott Hygnstrom, with the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). "There's a spike in activity in the silk and tassel stage." Hygnstrom said deer will eat 20 ears of corn twice a day. Deer chew their cud, as cattle do, and need two and a half pounds of food, including corn, woody plants and alfalfa, to fill their rumen. The best tool to control the deer population is hunting. Nebraska tries to manage the deer population to 25 to 35 per square mile in order to give enough to hunters, he said. The most effective practice for damage control is fencing but this option in not cheap. A 12-gauge wire costs $1 to $1.50 per foot for materials and an equal amount for installation while a 8-foot woven wire fence can cost $10 per foot plus installation costs of another $10 per foot. These costs can be justifiable for perennial crops of high value, such as fruit trees, but for annuals such as corn, soybeans and alfalfa, it would be hard to justify the cost of the fence, he said.
(Midwest Producer, July 27, 2010)
(http://www.midwestproducer.com/…)
Because of extra moisture and a mild spring, farmers in Montana are harvesting a record amount of hay, the Missoulian reported on Monday. Missoula County Extension agent Jerry Marks said the extra moisture this growing season has made it a good grass year with average alfalfa growth as well. "Montana's been in a drought, so this is good," Marks said. "The yields are above average. Alfalfa's good, too, despite the cold." Diane Grant, who farms in Ronan, said her harvested grass hay has seen about a 50 percent increase in yield this year. "It is the tallest it's been in 20 years," Grant said. Dave and Kim Fox of Corvallis said the rains delayed their first cutting of hay but the moisture has also saved them the labor and money involved with irrigation. The downside to a high-yielding hay crop in the state is that it could have a negative effect on hay prices. While a majority of this year's hay has yet to hit the market, the high price of more $200 a ton hay seen in 2008 could be cut in half this year.
(The Missoulian (Missoula, Mont.), July 26, 2010)
(http://missoulian.com/…)
Genera Energy plans to begin construction on what it is calling biomass innovation park in east Tennessee, the Knoxville News in Knoxville, Tenn., said, as part of a partnership with Dupont Danisco to produce cellulosic ethanol using corn cobs and eventually switchgrass. The biomass park, which is on schedule for completion at the end of 2010, will be built adjacent to a demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant currently under construction.
(Knoxville News, July 26, 2010)
(http://www.knoxnews.com/…)
The American Coalition for Ethanol, the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association asked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to approve the use of E12, reported Cattle Network in Lenexa, Kan., as the industry bumps up against the blend wall waiting for pending EPA approval of E15. The blend wall is where production exceeds market demand. In a letter to Jackson, the groups said "based on the EPA's delay in acting upon the full E15 waiver and on our concerns that the agency will restrict the use of E15 to cars made in 2001 and thereafter, we encourage the EPA to formally approve the use of E12 for all motor vehicles as an immediate interim step pending any ongoing additional testing on E15." The groups said "EPA must provide a practical and workable solution to the ethanol blend wall issue and do so soon."
(Cattle Network, July 26, 2010)
(http://www.cattlenetwork.com/…)
