In my last blog I wrote about using farm and processing waste as an alternative, renewable fuel. Well this week bio-fuels got a big boost from an unlikely source.
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By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Alternative energy is becoming increasingly important in our oil-limited world. Record high gas prices at the pump and creeping hydro bills are just signs of things to come. Farm equipment manufacturers are saying that farmers need more incentives to generate alternative energy from sources such as livestock manure.
Although the technology to turn poop (and other food and farm wastes) into clean energy has been commercially available in Canada for more than a decade, it hasn’t taken off the way I think it should. I got involved in the development of bio-diesel about ten years ago. The livestock and poultry farmers I worked for at the time saw the technology as a way to deal with shrinking markets and opportunities to recycle animal by-products. The technology has improved since then but the costs have not.
For example, one company, Bio-Terre Systems, has developed a low temperature anaerobic digestion system for processing farm manure and other organic wastes. The new system operates at lower temperatures than conventional systems cutting operating costs. Other companies have come-up with a new generation of extractors to improve the quality of bio-fuels that can be used in our vehicles. Farmers can use the energy to power their farms or sell it back to the electricity grid.
So what is holding it back? Right now although the technology is available the business incentives are not. Farm engineer Dennis Hodgkinson says environmental regulators in Canada have been slow to embrace anaerobic digestion and he believes that is slowing the advancement of the technology.
Mr Hodgkinson says the Europeans have built hundreds of conventional anaerobic digesters on farms but that development has been supported by preferential treatment. In Canada these business incentives, tax incentives and preferential green energy rates, don’t exist in our every day business, he says.
Right now, he explains, it is individual farmers that are choosing to make personal investments to adopt the technology because they believe in its potential. Eventually he predicts the economic circumstances will develop to make it attractive to both farmers and energy buyers.
This is a good technology, it can make real environmental improvements and it already has in a limited way. Now it is a matter of waiting for the economic circumstances to be right. That means waiting for even higher prices at the pump.
Until the next BLOG.
Guest blog: By a B.C. dairy farmer
To me, the word sustainable has become a buzz word,or marketing doublespeak. As an all encompassing management practice, I prefer the term stewardship. And I try to put this into practice in all areas, not strictly agriculture. As a Christian, I have a biblical mandate to manage what I have been given.
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By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
It’s no wonder there’s a growing perception that farms which feed cattle on grass for their entire lives, are better for the environment than farms that finish their pasture-raised cattle in feedlots with grain. The image is that the grass is always lush and plentiful and the cattle self feed themselves with little dependence on machinery or other energy consuming equipment. Whether or not science has confirmed this perception is another story.
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Barn changes over the generations
By Patricia Grotenhuis, Lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
Sometimes I sit and think about all of the changes that have happened from the time my great-grandfather bought his farm until now, when my parents run it with the help of my siblings.
Back in 1934, Canada was in the middle of the Great Depression. That seems to be a strange time to buy a farm, but Great Grandpa did it. Some of the original buildings are still on that farm, with new buildings and additions over the past 77 years. These changes, in some ways, show the timeline of how agriculture has been evolving.
Take the original bank barn for example. It is still large and impressive, but there have been noticeable changes made to it. Different areas of the barn reflect different times. There are the old stanchions which used to be used for the cows. They’re rather small, and most have been removed. In one corner, they are still intact, but are rarely used as stanchions anymore. The rest of the barn has tie stalls now, which were used for the cows when I was young, before the milking parlour was put in. Now, the tie stalls are used for calves before they are big enough to be in group pens.
In another corner of the barn, there is a track hanging from the ceiling. At one time, that track was used to remove manure from the barn. Eventually, it was replaced by a more modern gutter cleaner system. The gutter cleaner was recessed into the floor and brought manure to a pump. The pump would send the manure through a pipe into the manure storage pit outside of the barn.
Underneath the barn hill was once the milk house. It was where all of the milk was stored before the milk truck picked it up. This area was added on to, and later became a series of three loose housing pens. When I was young, the pens were used for maternity pens and, in some cases, as sick pens. Those pens changed and became housing for a wide variety of animals over the years. In my lifetime, they have been used for veal calves, horses, sheep and goats. If a pen was empty, it also housed rabbits when we were younger.
The freestall structure which my grandpa added to the barn, has been used for beef cattle, veal, heifers, and is now strictly used for milking cows. Part of it was converted into the milking parlour. During the summer, one end of the freestall is blocked off, and the dry cows (cows that are not being milked because they are close to calving) use it for shelter and for water access. Both the dry cows and milking cows have pasture access from spring to fall.
The mow in the barn has always been partially used for hay and straw storage. One area of it was also used for livestock housing a long time ago. I remember being told there were chickens in one part of the mow when my grandparents were farming and my dad was young. The floor was pulled up from one section of the mow, and used to make a wall so that one half has two storeys, although only half of a floor between them. That section is used for cut straw in the main part of the barn.
The other part of the barn mow is wide open. It was used for bale storage for years. Right now, it is mainly storage of small tools and equipment, as rolling the large round bales into the mow is very hard to do with a limited number of people and we do not have small square bales any more. In the mow, it is obvious that the barn is old. Wooden pegs hold the beams in place, rather than nails. In several places, you can see evidence of how the hay and straw used to be unloaded, although the equipment itself was removed long ago.
That barn has seen changes from no electricity to electricity. It went from being a mixed farm (with several kinds of animals being raised on the property) to being a more specialized dairy farm. The farm has also gone from raising animals mainly to feed the family and some neighbours to producing enough for larger numbers of people
The treasured farm photographs that we have, dating back to the 1940s, tell a story when they are lined up…a story about Canada. They show how farms used to be small, subsistence-style farms supporting low numbers of people. In those days, there was a much larger percentage of the population who farmed, and almost everything eaten was local food.
Now, the farm is modern and is larger. The average Canadian farm produces enough food for 120 people, and only two per cent of Canadians are farmers. Technology is needed to make the farm more efficient, allowing farmers to feed so many people.
The improvements made have led to a more safe food supply for Canada, and have made it possible for so many people to work in other jobs now. I am sure if my great grandpa were here today and could walk around the farm today, and see how it has changed, he would be proud to see what it has become.
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Turning chicken feathers into ‘green’ plastic is not a new idea. Government and university scientists in the U.S. first began serious research into the possibility years ago. The goal for researchers and plastic manufacturers has been to develop a substitute for petroleum in some plastic products. This year, some technical hurdles have been over-come and this bio-degradable plastic is now being produced commercially.
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By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
According to the numerous trends lists that I have been reading, the buzz around food sustainability will continue to increase, driven by the food industry and retailers like Wal-Mart. This includes social, economic and environmental sustainability - lower greenhouse gas emissions, smaller carbon footprints, fair(er) trade and pricing policies, and responsible production practices. Food manufacturers and retailers now have whole departments devoted to corporate social responsibility. As buyers of farm products they have influence with their suppliers over how products may and may not be produced.
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By: Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
I remember my marketing professor telling the class that: “People are motivated by their own interests, not yours.” So that means it’s important to meet their demands and pay attention to their opinions— discerningly.
It’s not that we in the farming and food communities shouldn’t listen to customers or place special emphasis on understanding their wants and needs, concerns and complaints. It’s that we should do so with discretion: Sometimes the customer is just plain wrong.
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By Leslie Ballentine, Farm and food commentator
Genomics is a touchy subject, whether we are talking human or plant and animal. That is why the biotechnology debate can get so heated. In my opinion, and in the opinion of most in the farm and food sector, biotechnology gets a bad rap in these debates.
To use an old cliché, biotechnology is just one tool in the tool box whether it is used for food production, medical advances or to help the planet. It isn’t perfect all of the time but in my experience, the end results are rarely dangerous and usually beneficial.
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by Patricia Grotenhuis, Lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
In recent years, interest in local foods and what farming practices are being used has created a shift. Consumers are starting to seek out farmers who sell direct through farmers’ markets and on-farm stores, and farmers are spending more time connecting with consumers.
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