Farms benefit by creating energy

[Ed Barrow]

Like many others these days, Michigan farmers are looking for ways to use less energy, save money and be kinder to the environment. From installing machinery that converts manure into electricity, to processing corn to create biofuel, to leasing land for wind farms, more Michigan growers are exploring methods of reducing their carbon footprint, cutting energy costs and diversifying their income. While agriculture officials are aware of this growing practice, they are not sure how broadly it is being adopted.

In Michigan, several hundred farms among the state's more than 56,000 use or produce alternative energy. Last month, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service began surveying 417 of these operations to gauge what farmers are doing to cut energy consumption and costs, director Dave Kleweno said. The results will be available next year. Each state is conducting its own survey. The results will give agricultural producers, policy makers and the public details about the economic and environmental impact of on-farm energy production.

"It's a small minority, but it's growing," Bob Boehm, manager of commodity and marketing at the Michigan Farm Bureau, said of farmers in the state who are pursuing renewable energy.

Financial and environmental reasons are pushing the trend, Boehm said. As farms have gotten larger, producing more manure, farmers have been looking for new ways to dispose of the waste in an environmentally friendly manner. Additionally, energy costs have increased and farmers can supplement the power and fuel they buy to operate equipment with their own. Some even make money by selling excess fuel and power to energy companies, Boehm said.

For Russell Rasch of Jim Rasch Farm in Conklin, northwest of Grand Rapids, producing ethanol on the 150-acre crop farm is a money saver as well as a money maker. The farm installed a $200,000 renewable fuel system that converts corn into ethanol, a biofuel that's used in Rasch's tractors and pickups. The system produced 4,000 gallons of ethanol in the first two years, but production is on hold while the farm addresses a permit issue.

Rasch estimates the farm could save thousands of dollars a year by using the homegrown ethanol, and any excess could be sold for $1 a gallon to a fuel company. "It's definitely a way to diversify and give you income all year long," he said.

Harley Sietsema is expecting a major return from a $4 million gasification system he established at his feed mill in Howard City. The system converts turkey waste into energy.

"It's the right thing for us to do for the long-term business strategy," Sietsema said.

North of Lansing, Velmar Green hopes to reap a profit from an anaerobic digester he installed at his Elsie dairy farm. The system converts manure from his 3,800 cows into methane gas. He also plans to produce methane gas to run his machinery.

"We're very optimistic because there are other (projects) down the pike," Green said. "We'll be in a good position to make a profit, but it'll take a while."



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