ISU corn Stover Training Paying Off For Iowa small Businesses And Startup Companies

Jan 30, 2015

In the cornfields of central Iowa last fall, employees of newly created, small, local businesses prepared and collected corn stover — the stalks, leaves, and cobs left after grain harvest — as feedstock for the DuPont Biofuels Solutions cellulosic ethanol facility in Nevada, which launched production in the fall. The corn stover harvesters were trained by and had access to support from Iowa State University researchers, who continue to work to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

“What we are trying to do is put a supply chain in place as was done for corn, beginning in the 1800s and evolving into what we have today. But stover bales are a bulkier product and we need that supply chain to fully evolve over just a few years,” said Matthew Darr, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.

Farmers with animals have harvested corn stover for bedding and silage for decades. But collecting stover as biofuel feedstock and creating and managing a corn stover supply chain on an industrial scale is new to Iowa corn producers and biorefinery operators.

In 2009, the Iowa State corn stover supply chain research team led by Darr, began working with DuPont at the BioCentury Research Farm researching ways to grow and develop an industrial feedstock supply chain and achieve a quality and economically viable product for biorefineries, while maintaining soil health and quality.

Source:.iastate.edu

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.