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Agro-energy efforts & progress at UF-IFAS Hastings Partnership - 2008

Agro-energy efforts & progress at UF-IFAS Hastings Partnership - 2008. J. Breman, S. Taylor, D. Dinkins, T. Donovan, and E. Redden . Critical Regional Issue. Large vegetable & potato growers need additional revenue stream

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Agro-energy efforts & progress at UF-IFAS Hastings Partnership - 2008

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  1. Agro-energy efforts & progress at UF-IFAS Hastings Partnership - 2008 J. Breman, S. Taylor, D. Dinkins, T. Donovan, and E. Redden

  2. Critical Regional Issue • Large vegetable & potato growers need additional revenue stream • County commissioners & engineers need to know if an ethanol plant can be sustained with sufficient biofuel feedstocks in the tri-county region • Putnam • St. Johns • Flagler

  3. Why Sorghum? • Already used by farmers in the tri-county area as a cover crop between vegetable seasons: • Estimated 25,000 - 40,000 acres • Capture residual nitrogen fertilizer • Protect water quality • Maintain soil organic matter

  4. Potential for Other Uses • High yield potential • Ratoon crop possible • High water use efficiency • Efficient use of nitrogen • Multiple use cultivars exist now • Grain • Sugar • Cellulose

  5. Sorghum Biofuel Options • Grain (milo) sorghum cultivars • Amylase + yeast = ethanol • By product = ruminant feed (brewers grains)

  6. Sorghum Biofuel Options • Syrup (sweet) sorghum cultivars • Sugar extraction + yeast = ethanol • Bagasse by-product burned in boiler or fed into the cellulosic process stream

  7. Sorghum Biofuel Options Forage and day-neutral sorghum cultivars • Cellulosic • Lignocellulose + enzymes = sugars • sugars + gmo’s and yeast = ethanol

  8. UF-IFAS Sorghum Research: • Belle Glade AREC (Dr. Zane Helsel, visiting) • Sweet sorghum variety trials • Goal is to maximize sugar yield/acre • Microbiology Department (Dr. Lonnie Ingram) • Goal is maximize cellulose to sugar conversion using GMO’s (enzymes) • Agronomy Department (Dr. Wilfred Vermerris) • Brown midrib mutants for high cellulose digestibility • Inbred lines with high yields of fermentable sugars

  9. Hastings Sugar Research • Which Nitrogen rates to apply? • Which cultivars to plant? • Which stage of growth to harvest? • Would topping the plant increase sugar?

  10. Hastings Sugar Yield Research

  11. Hastings Sugar Yield – 2007 Results • No significant difference between intermediate & high nitrogen rates • M-81E highest sugar yield, Dale second highest sugar yield (interaction-dependent) • Stage of growth X nitrogen X cultivar interactions maximized sugar yield • Topping did not significantly increase sugar yields

  12. Hastings Grain Research

  13. Hastings Grain Research –2007 Results • Low N rate = 22 bushels/acre • Intermediate N rate = 25 bushels/acre • High N rate = 27 bushels/acre

  14. Hastings Additional Research –Sugar Yield in 2008 • Nitrogen study following potato harvest • Elite breeding lines and collected germplasm (Dr. Vermerris, cooperator) • Disease study (Dr. Gevens, cooperator) • Commercial planting demonstration

  15. Hastings Additional Research –Grain Yield in 2008 • Elite breeding lines and collected germplasm (Dr. Vermerris, cooperator) • Commercial planting demonstration

  16. Sorghum Reference: • Rooney, W.L. 2006. Designing sorghum as a dedicated bioenergy crop. Texas A&M University.

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