Purpose – The US Department of Energy has a goal to make ethanol from biomass cost competitive with petroleum by 2012. Feedstock procurement is expected to represent a significant portion of the operating costs for a refinery that produces ethanol from biomass such as switchgrass. Thus,...

A 2009 survey of cotton farmers in twelve states collected information about the use of georeferenced precision soil testing (PST). Adoption of PST technology and the interval until retesting were examined with a Poisson hurdle regression. Survey data were calibrated using a post-stratification...

Precision Farming by Cotton Producers in Twelve Southern States: Results from the 2009 Southern Cotton Precision Farming Survey

Producers lack information about the profitability of variable rate technology (VRT) for agricultural sprayers. An economic framework was developed to evaluate the returns required to pay for VRT investments. Payback variables included input savings, yield gains, and reduced application costs....

Revised version of the paper submitted 2/11/2010

This study evaluated the potential impacts of dry matter losses from alternative harvest and storage methods on the costs of growing switchgrass for energy production. Data from a switchgrass bale harvest and storage experiment at Milan, TN, indicate that storage losses for covered rectangular...

This poster estimates dry matter losses as a function of harvest method, storage treatment, and time in storage. We then calculate the cost to store switchgrass bales under alternate harvest method and storage treatment scenarios; and determine the breakeven harvest method and storage treatment...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has been identified as a model feedstock for the emerging biofuels industry. Its selection was based, in part, upon the observation that switchgrass can produce high yields in marginal production environments. This trait may become particularly valuable in...