Colorado Corn

By Todd Neeley
DTN Staff Reporter

HURLEY, S.D. (DTN) -- A brisk wind whipped around corn stover particles flying out the back of a combine on Darrin Ihnen's 4,000-acre farm near Hurley, S.D.

To the naked eye there was nothing spectacular about the combines mowing down fields dried in the late-summer heat, but a closer look revealed something different: Extra attachments had been added to these monstrosities by ethanol-producing giant Poet as a way for farmers to become part of the future of cellulosic ethanol.

While hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent in pursuit of alternatives for corn-based ethanol, the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based company is convinced it has the technology to extend the useful life of corn-based ethanol plants in the cellulosic age. The secret: corn cobs.

Until recent months, Poet's Project Liberty has been shrouded in mystery, an almost space-age-like idea that will somehow revolutionize both the corn and ethanol industries with corn stover, starting first with the corn cob. Ihnen's farm has become one of the company's new research centers.

Poet, which has plans to convert an existing 50-million-gallon corn ethanol plant to a cellulosic-ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, using corn cobs as its feedstock, has spent the better part of the summer and early fall testing ways to harvest and store cobs.

Ihnen said farmers will have to decide for themselves what method will work best.

"It's an extra step," he said of collecting the cobs. "It's an opportunity to generate some more income per acre. That's the way you have to look at it. Can I increase my dollars on the bottom line?"

Farmers will earn between $30 and $60 per ton for their cobs, according to information from Poet. Ethanol plants have the potential to make about 11 percent more ethanol from each bushel of corn, versus using the grain alone.

Poet is experimenting with two potential harvesting methods. In the first method farmers could pull what is called a cob caddy behind a combine, where the cobs are collected and then emptied from the caddy into a separate truck. Grain flows to the grain tank. The cob caddy used Tuesday was invented by Nebraska farmer Vernon Flemme and can be pulled by any combine.

The second method, through combine modifications developed by John Deere, keeps grain and chopped cobs in a single comingled mix in the grain tank. That process gets grain out of the field faster, though it requires the use of a high-powered separation machine after harvest to separate the corn from the cobs.

"(Either) is definitely doable," Ihnen said. "It's something that we can do as farmers. It depends on your preference. Do you want to do the corn and cob mix or do you want to do the corn and cob separate?"

Each method has advantages, he said.

"It changes everyday," Ihnen said. "When we were battling mud the corn and cob mix had the advantage. Some days you've got problems with the separator. To this point I don't have any preference. Whatever the manufacturer gets us, that's the best product, that's what growers are going to use. But growers definitely are going to want choices. Some want to store a whole cob like I'm doing or the John Deere mix of (a) finer cob. Right now it's up in the air, but at least they'll have options."

Ihnen said that dumping the cob caddy takes about one minute.

A drive through the southeastern South Dakota countryside already shows the signs of what Poet officials call an agricultural revolution. Along gravel roads sit piles of corn cobs -- some up to 30 feet high -- and other smaller piles stored in makeshift wire bins.

Reed Mayberry, Poet biomass manager, said the company is primarily studying on-ground storage. At some point it will study indoor storage methods as well.

Poet has experimented with a variety of aeration and mechanical alterations to cob piles, he said, to identify how biomass quality holds up in various weather scenarios.

Mark D. Stowers, vice president of research and development for Poet, said the research includes more than 20 pieces of equipment, some 50 to 60 piles of cobs spread out across the countryside, and more than 100 different experiments on cob quality based on various harvesting and storage methods.

Ihnen's cobs, Stowers said, represent about 1 percent of the feedstock the Emmetsburg plant would need once it's in operation.

"It is probably the most comprehensive study of cobs that's ever been done," Stowers said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what we can do with corn cobs."

John Deere engineer Chad Yagow said he made several "minor adjustments" to the company's 9860 STS combine that has a 450-bushel grain tank. He tightened the concave settings to help break up the cobs when creating the corn/cob mix.

He said the company also has installed a few, unnamed, experimental parts to the machine. So far, the combine has held up under a variety of harvesting conditions with "no great increase in fuel consumption" and nothing more than "typical breakdowns."

Barry Nelson, manager of public relations for John Deere's Ag Marketing Center, said the experiments in South Dakota are done with already available equipment.

Once it is decided what works best for farmers, he said, John Deere would develop various lines to suit those needs.

"This type of machinery is a reality right now," Nelson said. "It is a technology that will happen. One of the things we (Deere) do is design equipment that makes it more efficient for producers out there."

Todd Neeley can be reached at Todd [dot] Neeley [at] dtn [dot] com.

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