Robert Pore's Ag Blog

Gov. Dave Heineman expanded his federal disaster declaration request Wednesday to include 34 additional counties due to ongoing drought, including Hall and a number of surrounding counties.

Also, Sens. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel are requesting that Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns increase federal spending for the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at the University of Nebraska.

Heineman expanded his federal drought disaster declaration request after receiving additional damage assessment reports compiled by local Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices.

Heineman’s request added the following counties: Adams, Antelope, Boone, Burt, Butler, Cedar, Clay, Colfax, Dakota, Dixon, Dodge, Fillmore, Greeley, Hall, Hamilton, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Lancaster, Madison, Merrick, Nemaha, Nuckolls, Pawnee, Pierce, Richardson, Saline, Saunders, Seward, Stanton, Thayer, Thurston, Wayne, and York.

The latest request brings the total number of Nebraska counties deemed eligible for a disaster designation to 83.

Heineman has previously requested and gained disaster declarations for 49 counties: Arthur, Banner, Blaine, Box Butte, Boyd, Brown, Buffalo, Chase, Cheyenne, Cherry, Custer, Dawes, Dawson, Deuel, Dundy, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Garden, Garfield, Grant, Gosper, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Holt, Hooker, Howard, Kearney, Keith, Keya Paha, Kimball, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, McPherson, Morrill, Perkins, Phelps, Red Willow, Rock, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan, Sherman, Sioux, Thomas, Valley, Webster, and Wheeler.
Heineman said recent rainfall may have offered short-term relief to some Nebraska producers. But, he said, that rain has come far too late for many farmers and ranchers who have seen seven years of drought now.

“Producers across our state are being impacted by the cumulative effects of dry weather, and while we need these designations to access drought assistance, we need Congress to act quickly on additional aid.”

On Tuesday, Johanns announced $780 million in assistance to help farmers and ranchers manage drought- and weather-related production challenges for drought-impacted states.

Earlier this month, an economist for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Brad Lubben, estimated Nebraska agricultural loss due to drought this year at $342 million.
Heineman said damage reports from FSA indicate that each of the 34 counties in the governor’s disaster declaration request has suffered at least a 30 percent loss in one or more crop or livestock areas.

He said requests for additional counties are possible as more data becomes available.
A natural disaster designation provides affected producers with access to low-interest loans, tax deferment flexibility and other programs to mitigate the impact of drought.

Nelson and Hagel are asking Johanns that NDMC be included in the administration’s Fiscal Year 2008 budget request at a level of $1,540,000.

“As you are well aware, the impact of drought on our agricultural economy is devastating,” the senators wrote in their letter to Johanns.

They said that mitigating the effects of drought can help protect “...this important part of our economy and save millions of dollars in federal drought assistance.”
Nelson and Hagel told Johanns that drought has plagued much of the nation for the past 10 years.

“As you know, some parts of Nebraska have been in drought for seven years,” the senators wrote. “The NDMC plays a vital role during this difficult time in providing a nationwide, immediate and focused response to this recurring disaster.”
For current statewide information on drought program availability, visit http://www.droughtcentral.org.

YONKERS, NY — Tests and an investigation by Consumer Reports conclude that
E85 ethanol will cost consumers more money than gasoline and that there are
concerns about whether the government’s support of flexible fuel vehicles is
really helping the U.S. achieve energy independence.
Findings from CR’s special report include:

•E85, which is 85 percent ethanol, emits less smog-producing pollutants than
gasoline, but provides fewer miles per gallon, costs more, and is hard to
find outside the Midwest.

•Government support for flexible-fuel vehicles, which can run on either E85
or gasoline, is indirectly causing more gasoline consumption rather than
less.

•Blended with gasoline, ethanol has the potential to fill a significant
minority of future U.S. transportation fuel needs.

To see how E85 ethanol stacks up against gasoline, Consumer Reports put one
of its test vehicles, a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe Flexible-Fuel Vehicle (FFV)
through an array of fuel economy, acceleration, and emissions tests.

Overall fuel economy on the Tahoe dropped from an already low 14 mpg overall
to 10. In highway driving, gas mileage decreased from 21 to 15 mpg; in city
driving, it dropped from 9 mpg to 7. You could expect a similar decrease in
gas mileage in any current flex fuel vehicle because ethanol has a lower
energy content than gasoline—75,670 British thermal units (BTUs) per gallon
instead of 115,400 for gasoline, according to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration. As a result, you have to burn more fuel to generate
the same amount of energy.

With the retail pump price of E85 averaging $2.91 per gallon in August,
according to the Oil Price Information Service, a 27 percent fuel-economy
penalty means drivers would have paid an average of $3.99 for the energy
equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.

When Consumer Reports calculated the Tahoe’s driving range, it found that it
decreased to about 300 miles on a full tank of E85 compared with about 440
on gasoline. So, motorists using E85 would have to fill up more often.

Most drivers in the country have no access to E85, even if they want it,
because it is primarily sold in the upper Midwest; most of the ethanol in
the U.S. is made from corn, and that’s where the cornfields and ethanol
production facilities are located. There are only about 800 gas stations—out
of 176,000 nationwide—that sell E85 to the public.

When Consumer Reports took its Tahoe to a state-certified emissions-test
facility in Connecticut and had a standard emissions test performed, it
found a significant decrease in smog-forming oxides of nitrogen when using
E85.

Despite the scarcity of E85, the Big Three domestic auto manufacturers have
built more than 5 million FFVs since the late ‘90s, and that number will
increase by about 1 million this year.

A strong motivation for that is that the government credits FFVs that burn
E85 with about two-thirds more fuel economy than they actually get using
gasoline, even though the vast majority may never run on E85.

This allows automakers to build more large, gas-guzzling vehicles than they otherwise
could under Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules. As a result, these credits
have increased annual U.S. gasoline consumption by about 1 percent, or 1.2
billion gallons, according to a 2005 study by the Union for Concerned
Scientists.

From an alternative-energy perspective, it doesn’t matter whether ethanol is
blended as E85 or in lower mixes such as E10 (a 10/90 ethanol/gasoline
mixture) that all cars can burn; a given amount of ethanol still goes just
as far in reducing demand for gasoline. Experts agree that the maximum
amount of ethanol you can get from corn in the U.S. is about 15 billion
gallons. But scientists are working on producing ethanol from other plant
material, called cellulose, which could increase this capacity by as much as
45 billion gallons. (For comparison’s sake, the U.S. burned 140 billion
gallons of gasoline in 2005.)

The important backdrop to the ethanol debate, of course, is that petroleum
is a finite resource that’s rapidly being depleted. Government scientists
are planning for a day when world oil production peaks and begins to slow.
They say the country must begin planning for alternatives 20 years before
that peak. Today ethanol is receiving their attention because it requires
fewer technological breakthroughs and less infrastructure development than
batteries or fuel cells, and by including cellulose, its capacity can exceed
that of biodiesel.

By ARS News Service

Illegal to burn and expensive to move, straw creates serious disposal problems for the grass seed industry. That’s why two Agricultural Research Service (ARS) labs are collaborating with scientists from the Laramie, Wyo., Western Research Institute to develop a small-scale gasification reactor.

The Pacific Northwest grass seed industry that provides seed for lush lawns for homes, parks and golf courses also produces millions of tons of straw every year, only a fraction of which can be used as mulch for conservation.

ARS researchers at the Forage Seed and Cereal Laboratory in Corvallis, Ore., and the Crop Conversion Science and Engineering Laboratory in Wyndmoor, Pa., are developing technology for converting that straw into synthetic gas that can be used to produce electricity or liquid fuel.

Within the prototype reactor, straw is reduced to char--small particles of carbon and residue--and converted into a mixture of vaporized gases that can be used to produce liquid, synthetic gas.

The scientists believe the research will enable them eventually to develop an economically feasible method to dispose of straw because it eliminates the expense of transporting straw off property.

The technology is still undergoing trials to improve its effectiveness and economy. ARS chemical engineer Akwasi Boateng, at Wyndmoor, and plant physiologist Gary Banowetz, at Corvallis, believe that in the near future, the small-scale gasification system will provide not only an environmentally beneficial alternative to field-burning grass straw, but an economically competitive alternative to fossil fuel-derived energy.

Based on the carbon content of straw, Banowetz estimates that synthetic gas produced in the reactor could be converted into about 60 gallons of fuel per ton of straw. With 7 million tons of excess grass and cereal straw generated each year, the Pacific Northwest has the potential to produce 420 million gallons of liquid fuel.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.