The Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes a provision designed to double the production and use of ethanol in fuels by 2012, and that beginning in 2013, a minimum of 250 million gallons per year of ethanol be produced from lignocellulosic sources such as corn stover, wheat straw, and switchgrass....

Technology that would enable use of lignocellulosic biomass for biorefinery feedstock is under development. The 2002 Farm Bill permitted managed harvesting of biomass from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. This study was conducted to determine the cost to procure, harvest, store, and...

The logistics of providing an orderly flow of lignocellulosic feedstock to a biorefinery have not been addressed by most biorefinery feasibility studies. A mixed integer mathematical programming model is developed that includes integer decision variables enabling investment in harvest machines...

Technology that would enable use of lignocellulosic biomass for biorefinery feedstock is under development. The 2002 Farm Bill permitted managed harvesting of biomass from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. This study was conducted to determine the cost to procure, harvest, store, and...

In contrast to the myriad of empirical work on food demand in other countries, very few studies have considered zero expenditures on some food groups. Those which have attempted have been based on techniques which result in endogeneity and inefficient estimates which in turn may misinform policy...

Topic Relevance Foliar diseases often reduce grain yields of winter wheat in the southern Great Plains, with some individual year yield losses in excess of 10%. At current prices, the gross value of these losses for the region could exceed a quarter of a billion dollars annually. Historically,...

If switchgrass harvest is delayed until after senescence, some nutrients will translocate to the plant’s crown and roots. Biomass yield and fertilizer requirements depend on harvest date. The objective is to determine switchgrass biomass yield, nutrient concentration in biomass, fertilizer...

Biorefineries that plan to use switchgrass exclusively will have to account for year-to-year variability in feedstock production. The objective of this research is to determine the quantity, class, and location of land to lease for switchgrass production to provide for the needs of a...