Ankeny water ban
- Thread starter ISUcyclones11
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As I understand it, the stover is for the natural gas production. They're making ethanol from corn and using some of the byproducts in the natural gas production (along with the stover). They're now producing both ethanol from corn and natural gas from the stover.
The stover big bales, its unique equipment right? Like the farmer doesn't deal with that, its a coop or company that does, right?
Then they sit kind of stacked on the farmground until the coop or company comes to collect?
Then they sit kind of stacked on the farmground until the coop or company comes to collect?
That is great, that is not the numbers I found. What I found is that "average" human is not 300 Lbs, and the average human produces less than a pound, from what I found, of feces, so maybe there is a bit of a number issue. Maybe you can post your links to what shows your info, to correct this.
How Much Do You Poop in Your Lifetime?
Over time, a person's poop can really add up.
Polk County water report pins unhealthy rivers on ag pollution
A long-awaited scientific report commissioned by Polk County says farm pollution threatens the ability to drink clean water.
www.kcci.com
Big water quality report was already underway before all of this. Polk County is releasing the full report next week.
Switchgrass or miscanthis would be far better sources. The fermentation folks as well as the engineers need to find a way to make that process feasible.
I worked a harvest season for the Nevada operation collecting field info. Because of the volume custom crews came from the PNW. But there were a few locals who could bale their own. A few stacks succumbed to lightning and/or arson over the years, I believe. If a plant accepting perennial grasses ever got up to full production I feel the harvest could be spread out enough that local custom operators could handle it.
Corn ethanol has a hell of a lot of negative environmental impacts. Water contamination, water use to produce, water required for CO(2) pipelines are just some of the new ones we are just beginning to recognize.
It’s always difficult to pinpoint an accurate number when determining what is “average” in a discussion. Bottom line, there are a lot of sources that add pollutants to rivers, hog manure being one of them. From practical observation from a lifetime of farming, terracing and tiling has changed the timing and flow of run off after a rain event when the soil profile has reached saturation. This along with the change from side dressing corn with liquid N along with over fertilization is a major contributor to the raccoon river nitrate problem.That is great, that is not the numbers I found. What I found is that "average" human is not 300 Lbs, and the average human produces less than a pound, from what I found, of feces, so maybe there is a bit of a number issue. Maybe you can post your links to what shows your info, to correct this.
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How Much Do You Poop in Your Lifetime?
Over time, a person's poop can really add up.www.livescience.com
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i'd say also an increase in drought years, leading to less nitrogen uptake... many producers not taking legacy nitrogen in soils into account... and when that wet year comes, flush into the system
Direct knifing into the ground along with applying only what is needed is the most financially efficient way to apply nitrogen. This would also reduce the river nitrate issue. The problem is that the window of opportunity to use this method is small due to the rapid growth of corn that has been bred into corn to benefit drydown along with weekly rainfall in the upper Midwest during this period which keeps equipment out of the fields. Urban folks that follow farming have heard of “green snap” in corn. This is a recent issue due to the rapid growth of corn which helps drydown and a wind event that rolls thru during this period. IMO, nitrate issues could be greatly reduced by application, timing, and amount.
This is true, but adding millions of hogs every year, is not helping the situation. Planting as much corn as possible is not helping the solution. Removing every buffer, grass waterway and stand of trees is not the solution. Doing anything possible to produce as many hogs and as much corn as possible is not helping.
Tile is just making it worse, without waterways for surface water, all that no till just causes the ditches and streams to fill up with cornstalks during heavy rains. I know of many places that the ditches are full of cornstalks from runoff, because all the grass waterways have been tilled up and planted to corn. I know some people that have resorted to try to burn them to clear the ditches, yards, bridges, streams etc.
Im all for farming, Im all for raising animals, but I also am all for clean water. Iowa doesnt have to raise the entire worlds pork itself. There is nothing wrong with spreading it around, letting other areas produce some. I also dont care if we ever ship cheap pork to China, let them pollute their own country. We need to stop selling our land and companies to China.
Dont get me started with the scam that is ethanol, that is a garbage fuel, that is no cleaner, and causes more problems than it helps, sure it made farmers some money for a couple years, now we dug up every spare acre and increased production, to grow more corn and oversupplied the system so, the bump in price from ethanol is no longer a thing. Now you have to produce that much corn just to make a profit, because well we continue to overproduce causing the price to stay low. So it makes us over plant, over populate, over fertilize, over tile every piece of land possible to grow as much as possible. No more set aside land, no more buffers, no more grass waterways to take surface water during heavy rains, no more tree and groves to assist with the same, no acreages and building sites in the country because those couple acres mean a few more bushel.
I am not claiming to know the answer to the problems, but I also am not blind to those problems. We continue to kick the can down the road, we continue to make it worse, with really no real solution in sight. We are our own worst enemy, price of corn is low, we need more corn to make money, which in turn pushes the price lower. Produce less corn, the price goes up, but you have to be willing to balance the system out and may make less for a time to make it happen, and I dont know anyone that wants to do that.
Voluntary micromanagement of corn isn't ever going to solve this problem. Corn yields have doubled since the '70's and along with that, the amount of N required to raise the crop. There are no signs that trend is topping out. There is also no indication that the number of acres dedicated to corn will diminish. Unused N, leached N, all kinds of N in the environment have doubled along with yields. I think we can see where this trend is going, can't we?
Millions Of Hogs,Millions With No Clean Water, How The EPA Failed Iowa
Many of the millions of people living in Iowa don't have clean drinking water because of weakened environmental protections.
www.forbes.com
The last sentence states that practices could reduce nitrates not eliminate, this would be a place to start and would cost nothing. There is plant breeding going on with the goal of corn that yields with less nitrogen needs along with corn that produces its own nitrogen. This can be a positive solution. Hypothetically then if nitrogen needs diminish then what’s the solution for livestock manure? It is a proven fact that manure digesters are successful in the Dairy industry. Why not build digesters for livestock and even municipal waste for energy production and finance with tax credits similar to solar and wind energy projects. Let MidAmerica and similar corporations make their billions while benefiting society? Obviously, I’m spit balling here but complaining about the problem without a practical solution is just kicking the can down the road, as has been mentioned. I’m all for environmentally clean energy production and manure digesters have been successful for a long time.
First off, I commend you for pointing out that N management can be more prescriptive and it sounds like you have adapted those practices. That makes it quite likely that your acres aren't often part of the problem. However, every honest agronomist knew when it was introduced that the Nutrient Reduction Strategy would be a bust in the real world. Conditions in Iowa, from erosion to nitrates in the water, have gotten measurably worse under the Nutrient Reduction Strategy of voluntary N management and practices.
As a former corn breeder I can tell you that this is an admirable goal that has been around forever. Gene manipulation makes it theoretically closer, but it's a pipe dream that we won't see in our lifetimes.
This involves capital expenditures that many won't want to tackle. I'm afraid the hype outstrips reality here again, at least as far as reducing N in the environment.
What Manure Digesters Can And Can't Do
The state of Wisconsin is betting on manure digesters in rural northeastern Wisconsin to curb water pollution and other environmental problems linked to the spreading of manure on dairy farms. ...
pbswisconsin.org
2 link articles I’ve read from this discussion are interesting: the Polk County independent study soon to be released concerning the DM water quality issue and the dairy methane digester project in Wisconsin. I laughed when Farm Bureau, the Corn Growers Association and State government announced the voluntary Nutrient Reduction program as the answer because I knew it would never amount to anything and was just a PR attempt to appease the public which has been and continues to be the case. We’ve been continuous no-till on the contour for over 35 years and have terraced every crop acre. I’ve tried cover crops with little success. Regulations by USDA yielding a big stick don’t work well with farmers but regulation tied to financial gain does. CRP is an example of such a successful approach. Without any data at my fingertips, I’d venture that not much nitrates come off CRP acres in run-off. Maybe the answer is paying necessary rates to enroll permanent seeded down CRP acres surrounding tributaries flowing into the Raccoon River basin. I’d be all for that because corn prices would go up due to those acres being some of the most productive in the world. On another note, I’ve wondered why they haven’t tried experimenting with spreading hog manure on CRP and checking the effect on runoff.
I bet you are correct on this. I have access to 25-30A of ~40 year CRP in the Loess Hills that all drains into a farm pond. About 5 acres of row cropped land (no-till) also does, but through the prairie. This pond has barely had enough water to support a small fish population for the last four years. The area got a well spread out 5" this week. I'd love to pull a sample there, especially if the springs are still trickling.
