Local growers hope to harvest flower power
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Bees pollinate a sunflower on Route 3 in Pittsford recently. Two farms in the area are growing sunflowers to see whether it's feasible to produce fuel from them for use in farm equipment. PHOTO BY BENEDICT HUDSON |
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By STEPHANIE M. PETERS
STAFF WRITER - Published: August 30, 2009
Bursts of brilliant yellow sunflowers have added some pop to the scenery along Routes 3, 7 and 73 in Brandon and Pittsford this summer, attracting photo seekers and causing more than a few passers-by to slow their vehicles and crane their necks to take in the fields of flowers.
Many have even called the two farms growing the crops to ask if they could pick a few, and have been surprised to learn how the flowers will be used.
The two growers, Lawes Agriculture and Woods Market Garden, will harvest the plants in October as part of a study of the feasibility of cultivating oil crops like sunflowers, canola and soybeans to produce biodiesel for on-the-farm use.
The crushed sunflower seeds will yield a potentially valuable byproduct, too: high-protein livestock feed that the growers hope to sell to dairy or livestock farms in the state.
"For us, our intent is basically to somewhat close the loop on our energy use," said Jon Satz of Woods Market Garden, which is growing seven acres of sunflowers. "We'll be able to use the products to power our greenhouses and our tractors."
Being able to reduce or control energy costs would be a timely boon for farmers, many of whom are facing dwindling revenues and the effects of the weather, according to Netaka White, biofuels director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. The nonprofit organization was formed by the Legislature to provide early grant funding and technical assistance to develop markets for sustainably produced goods.
"We're trying to further get the word out that growing the crops for fuel on your farm can be a viable way to make ends meet and decrease operating costs," White said.
Together, Jon Satz and Brad and Dean Lawes received $20,000 through the jobs fund's Vermont Biofuels Initiative to help them grow and process the flowers.
They join 13 other farms in the state this year that split about $484,000 in federal funding secured by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and distributed via the jobs fund. In recent years, more than $2.9 million has flowed to the state to fuel the research.
Sunflowers and canola aren't traditionally grown as crops in humid or temperate climates like Vermont, so optimizing seed yield is a large part of the equation Vermont farmers are working out. That's where the research of Heather Darby of the University of Vermont Extension Service comes in.
Darby is an agronomist, which means she helps farmers develop ways to grow better crops, control pests and improve the soil. She's been gathering data from farmers participating in the Vermont Biofuels Initiative for about three years but says the project is still "really collecting the information we need to gear up and get more people involved."
For instance, this year Darby, a farmer herself, is battling an early migration of birds that have feasted on her research crop.
"We're growing much smaller acreages than they do out west, so pests like birds could have a much bigger impact here," she said. "So far, our yields are comparable to other oil seed-producing states, and sometimes better, but we're still learning and getting the practices and pests under control."
Brad Lawes, whose 55 acres of sunflowers constitute the largest such crop in the state, is also worried about the flocks of birds that have taken to his fields.
"Producing the sunflowers is no big deal, making them beautiful is no big deal, it's what you're going to end up with when the birds are done with them," Lawes said.
Yield will be the determining factor for whether the Laweses pursue the project again next year.
The sunflowers both Lawes and Satz have planted are black oil sunflowers, a variety that grows only to about 50 inches in height but produces seeds that are higher in oil content.
One ton of sunflower seeds is estimated to yield about 80 gallons of oil and 1,500 pounds of meal. Lawes estimates his crops could yield about 3,000 gallons of oil, which in its raw form could power some of the machinery in his operation or could be sent to one of the few farms in the state with the equipment to process it into biodiesel that could power his vehicles.
As a matter of comparison, Lawes estimates his farm operation uses about 30,000 gallons of diesel a year.
"Right now we're just trying to see what we can get for a realistic yield," he said. "Twenty-five thousand pounds is the potential, but there's no sense in doing it if we only get 300 or 400."
In the interim, however, by planting their fields of gold along busy corridors, both Lawes and Satz are helping to spread the word about the initiative. When they get to explaining the project to curious onlookers, they share the fact that the fuel is not being produced as a commodity, according to White.
"The model we're trying to demonstrate is local production for local use, which contrasts quite a bit with the industrial model at the center of most biofuel production in the country and the world, really," White said. "We're trying to show this is something categorically different."
What's happening in Vermont is already turning some heads outside the state. White said he attends many conferences on small-scale biofuel production, and in many instances he's finding that the Vermont case studies, as well as crop data and analysis and greenhouse gas emission studies, are breaking ground.
"We don't have it figured out by a long stretch," White said. "But these sort of things are putting Vermont in a leadership position of how to do it right."
stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com
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