Farmers who are considering growing miscanthus as a bioenergy feedstock now have a tool to make it easier. After years of collaboration and research, a miscanthus rhizome regeneration harvester and planter system has been developed. The unveiling took place during the Bioenergy Feedstocks Symposium held at the University of Illinois (U of I). Typically, miscanthus is a labor-intensive crop requiring multiple machines, and costly manual selection and grading – but not any longer.
Timothy Mies, Deputy Director of Operations at the Energy Biosciences Institute at the U of I, said, “When this project started, the propagation of rhizomes was done with shovels and lots of manual labor. These machines will take miscanthus production to a new level.”
The new machine is the result of a three-year collaboration between U of I, Tomax Ltd and Bermuda King USA. According to a news release from U of I, this machinery can lower the cost of miscanthus rhizome production by up to 40 percent and create opportunities for miscanthus to be used more widely as a high-yield bioenergy crop.
“Bioenergy feedstock processors require security for supply and unless we dealt with regeneration and planting issues for miscanthus, we simply couldn’t make progress,” said Gavin Maxwell, Tomax Ltd Senior Bioenergy Consultant.
In recent U.S. trials, the machine has demonstrated a 200 percent increase in rhizome collection over manual systems. this allows, says the research team, the opportunity for regional nurseries to more efficiently expand to meet the demand for both solid and liquid fuel conversion.
So here is how it works. The planter demonstrates a more uniform stream of rhizomes, enabling plant placement at a rate that matches rhizome weight, quality and ground conditions. The four-row planter incorporates separate feed hoppers and placement channels enabling it to be used for both two-row nursery work and larger scale plantations.
In addition, the harvester does bulk lifting of rhizomes on a continual basis with a patented one-pass digging head and oscillating de-soiler. Rhizomes exit via bulk side discharger conveying rootstock to an adjacent trailer. The speed of extraction allows faster transfer of rhizomes to storage which is a real benefit given the seasonal weather restrictions and narrow window of time that may prevail during the rhizome winter dormancy period.
The harvester and planter package will be available beginning this year and will be available for expanded grower crops in time for the 2011 season.
I spent quite a bit of time in the 
Case IH is focusing strongly on its CDT technology where they are “doing a better job of finding the sweetspot” with energy efficiency. “We’re doing a better job of getting the energy to the ground, power to the ground where we need it,” said Bohnker.
Last week during the 
During the show, NAEDA was approached by some of the international manufacturers to set up some dealer networks in the U.S. Williams said that there are two secenaries these manufacturers have. One is they have a patent pending and two an existing company wants a presence in the States. In order for NAEDA to help them, Williams said the patent must be approved first and then he needs to know if they are wanting to sell through a distributor or dealers. “We’re giving them suggestions about dealer agreements and tools that dealers need to take a new product international.”
There were many tractors and loaders filling the McCormick booth during 
Many people came to McCormick’s booth to encourage them, along with other American-based companies, to invest more overseas in investment and education. While Miller agreed that this should happen, he also said that more international ag companies should consider investing in America’s agricultural industry.
For the sixth year in a row, 
high quality feed, consistency of feed and how well the corn cracked. The cross Jaquar delivers all that.”
Valmont Industries took home two AE50 awards during the AG CONNECT Expo last week including one for its Base Station 2 with soil moisture monitor. Michele Stolte, with 
Dr. Tom Richard, Associate Professor with Pennsylvania State University, kicked off the session discussing the agricultural value of adding winter crops or double crops to a farmer’s rotation. An example of a winter crop that would be suitable for Pennsylvania is winter rye. Once harvested, the crop could be used for cellulosic ethanol. An example of a double crop would be planning a grain such as barley in the spring followed by a summer crop such as corn or soybean. Richard noted that when most people do a biomass potential study, they don’t factor in winter crops and double crops, thus reducing the amount of biofuels that could be produced on the same amount of land currently in production.