Karlen solutions to new challenges

Midwestern Management of Biomass for Energy,
Soil and Water Conservation and Soil Health
Douglas L. Karlen, Larry Beeler, and Bruce E. Dale
USDA-ARS, USDA-NRCS, and Michigan State University
Presented at the 15th SWCS/SSSA Joint Symposium
SWCS Annual Meeting – Lombard, Illinois
July 29, 2014

 Midwest biomass: the past, present and future
 Lessons learned regarding sustainable corn
stover harvest
 NRCS guidelines and programs available to
biomass suppliers
 Critical soil and water research needed for
sustainable biomass supplies
Presentation Overview

Biomass is Not a New Midwestern Commodity
Native Americans Managed Prairie for Bison Grazing
From H.F. Reetz

 Corn and soybean are dominant crops because
of soil resources, climate and infra-structure
 Production of these crops has been successful
but ecosystem services have been disrupted
 Growing demand for biomass for biofuel and/or
bio-products creates opportunities to optimize
cropping systems
 Integrating food, feed and fuel production could
improve productivity and ecosystem services
The Midwest – Current Status
Midwest Regional Roadmap
www.swcs.org/roadmap)

Renewable energy is essential for human well-being
 The rate of energy use (rate of doing work) strongly
affects, even determines, national wealth and
opportunities for human development
 All rich societies use a lot of energy (~33% oil)
 “Energy efficiency” is essential but insufficient in
itself
 Fossil energy use makes us rich today—what energy
sources will make our children rich? Answer: fossil
energy cannot, it will be gone in the next few
decades….

Why renewable energy is crucial
 Without it, how will the billions of poor people in the
world ever access enough fossil energy to develop
their potential? Answer: they cannot, it will be gone
in the next few decades…
 Globally, we must have renewable energy — lots of it
in the next few decades
 Why? Because of all forms of energy, liquid fuels are
the most valuable and most problematic in terms of
supply, price and price volatility

Why renewable energy is crucial
 Although controversial, peak oil quite likely has
already arrived
 Only large scale, low cost, low carbon energy sources
can reduce GHGs, provide energy security and long
term wealth
 Biofuels (liquid fuels from plant material) are not
optional — we must have them — but they must also
become much more sustainable

 Corn stover
 Miscanthus/Switchgrass
 Oilseeds
Woody species
Midwest Biomass Resources
Midwest Regional Roadmap
(www.swcs.org/roadmap)
Canola,
Pennycress
Camelina

US-EPA and others identified corn stover as
the most economical feedstock because of:
 The extensive area on which corn is grown (planted on an
average of 97,272,000 acres in 2011 – 2013)
 The relatively high crop productivity (an average of 11.9
billion bushels of grain for those years)
 Potential average stover production of 282 million tons
per year based on a 0.5 harvest index
 The potential to reduce crop residue management costs
by harvesting a portion of the stover

BUT – stover is also important for soil health!
2013 winter erosion in Story County, Iowa
2013 corn production site in Green County, Wisconsin

Excessive Stover Harvest Can Result in:
Compaction & crusting
Degraded structure & aggregation
Water & wind erosion
Reduced plant growth
Impaired soil biology
Decreased yield
Reduced Soil Productivity

REAP/Regional Partnership Sites

Compiled 239 site-years of stover harvest data
Effects on subsequent grain and stover yields
Effects on soil organic carbon (C) & aggregation
Effects on microbial community
Effects on GHG emissions
Summarized in: BioEnergy Research, Vol. 2, 2014
Developed the Landscape Environmental Assessment
Framework (LEAF) and other tools to:
Estimate available residue
Quantify economics
Ensure ecosystem service benefits are sustained
What Was Accomplished?
This involved ARS, DOE, university, and private industry partners

Utilized Multiple Harvest Technologies
University Park
Lincoln
Ames, Morris & St. Paul Florence Industry Collaborators

What Was Learned?
 Corn grain yields ranged from 5.0 to 14.3 Mg ha-1 (80
to 227 bu/acre)
 Average grain yield response to stover harvest was
minimal:
 9.8, 10.1, and 10.1 Mg ha-1 (156, 160, and 160 bu/acre) for:
 No, moderate (3.9 Mg ha-1 or 1.7 tons/acre), or high removal
(7.2 Mg ha-1 or 3.2 tons/acre)
 Sustainable stover harvest rates are site specific –
averages are meaningless
 Appropriate residue harvest may encourage Midwest
producers to adopt no-till corn production practices

Other Lessons – Including Soil Health
 Compared to harvesting only grain – N, P, and K removal
are increased by at least 16, 2, and 18 kg Mg-1 of stover
 Minimum residue return projections for 35 studies were
6.38 ± 2.19 Mg stover ha-1 yr-1
 For grain yields ≤ 11 Mg ha-1 (175 bu ac-1), ten years of
stover harvest, even with no-tillage, resulted in reduced
POM (particulate organic matter) accumulation
 Low corn yields shifted the dry aggregate distribution
toward smaller soil aggregates
 Insufficient yields resulted in undesirable shifts in the
microbial community
 Overall, sustainable supplies of corn stover may be lower
than initially projected because of weather-induced yield
variability

Strategies to Ensure Sustainability
 Encourage the entire biomass industry to understand
the economic driver – limiting factor model

Strategies Continued
 Seek large, complementary, and beneficial changes:
we need food (feed) and fuel and sustainability and
rural economic development and better social
outcomes
 Living mulches Oilseeds

Double Cropping
 Growing cover crops (rye, triticale, brassicas) during the winter &
early spring on “dedicated” corn or soybean land:
 Does NOT require new land
 Increases sustainable corn stover harvest rate
 Provides addition biomass for biofuels, animal feed, etc
 Reframes the “food vs. fuel” debate
Holt, MI: May 5, 2005

Strategies Continued
 Continue to develop management tools such as the
Landscape Environmental Assessment Framework
(LEAF) and self-regulating strategies to ensure
sustainability
Re-diversify
the Midwestern
Landscape

Re-Diversification Requires the Right Question
 We are asking: Can we impose a very large new
demand for biofuels on the existing agricultural
system without creating soil, water, or other problems?
 We should be asking: Can we redesign U.S. agriculture
to produce biofuels, food/feed, and environmental
services?
 Would you enter the Indy 500 race driving a golf cart?
 Would you use a toothbrush to sweep the floor?
 Agriculture has changed before; it can change again
 Examine actual land uses: most land is used for animal feed
 Therefore: co-produce animal feeds with biofuels and/or
 make much better use of pasture land

An Alfalfa Paradigm Shift
Goal – diversify landscape, provide feedstock,
improve soil health, & protect water quality

Alfalfa Leaf Protein Collection & Extraction
Create market-pull for perennials by starting with a familiar crop

NRCS & FSA Biomass Perspectives
 Energy crops include:
 Woody species – cottonwood, hybrid poplas, silver maple,
black locust, sweetgum, eucalyptus, sycamore and willow
 Hebaceous perennials – switchgrass, bluestem, reed
canarygrass, wheatgrass, miscanthus
 Residues from annual crops – corn, sorghum and soybean
 Biomass crops should be grown in ways that ensure
environmental and economic sustainability, with
minimal or no adverse effects on natural ecosystems,
biodiversity and with minimal reliance on any single
crop

NRCS & FSA Biomass Production Programs
 Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
 Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG)
 Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
 Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
 Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP)
 Establishment payments for 50% of the costs for establishing
a new, perennial energy crop
 Maintenance payments until the crop matures (up to: 5 years
for herbaceous crops, 15 years for woody crops)
 Retrieval payments (matching) for mitigating the cost of
harvesting and transporting agricultural and forestry residues
to the end-use facility

Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) Perspectives
 Bioenergy made from sustainably harvested cover crops
has the potential to build the country’s renewable energy
portfolio while conserving resources and increasing
farmers’ income.
 Creation of local biomass markets and greater access to
incentives could significantly increase adoption rates for
cover crops
 Biomass potential and Trade-Offs
 Cover crops producing 2 to 5 tons/acre could provide 44 to 110
million tons of biomass per year if 10% of the nation’s 220 million
acres were planted and harvested
 If incentives resulted in 30% adoption of cover crops, this
feedstock could provide 10 to 36 billion gallons of ethanol.
 The primary concern regarding cover crops is their potential
negative effects on the yield of subsequent primary crops.

Research Needs
 Effective and efficient strategies for incorporating cover
crops in stover harvest systems
 No-tillage technologies that incorporate site-specific,
variable-rate seeding
 Innovative harvest methods and new uses for perennial
crops
 Improved herbaceous and woody biomass cultivars with
higher yield potential & better biofuel/bio-product
characteristics
 Quantify habitat impact of harvesting biomass
 Quantify runoff, nutrient, and pesticide losses associated
with biomass harvest
 Develop options and practices that enhance the value of
marginal lands

Summary & Conclusions
Renewable energy is essential for human well-
being
Biofuels (liquid fuels from plant material) are not
optional — we must have them — but they must be
truly sustainable – economically, environmentally,
& socially
 Finally, borrowing from the Wizard of Oz – “If we
only had a brain” we conclude that any perceived
food vs. fuel conflict can be solved without having
a negative impact on soil, water, or air resources
by simply using our heads!

Developing Sustainable Stover Harvest
Strategies is Just a First Step Toward Solving
Multiple Energy and Ecosystem Challenges
Any Questions?

Karlen solutions to new challenges

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