1st place, Business Reporting, Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors, 2008
FRUITLAND, Iowa — Tests to determine whether sugar beets can be grown in Iowa for ethanol production are being called a success.
“Our goal this year was to explore and investigate if we could actually grow beets here. In that respect we were very successful,” said Vince Lawson, superintendent of Iowa State University’s Muscatine Island Research Farm in Fruitland.
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About 40 people attended a field day at the research farm Thursday to learn more about “energy beet” varieties planted there and at ISU’s research farm in Crawfordsville in April.
Results of the crops are still being analyzed, but “proof of concept is there,” said Bryan Meier, head of product development and design for Syngenta seeds.
“I feel this could be a viable crop in your area,” Meier said.
The crop grown in fine-textured silt loam soil at Crawfordsville yielded almost 30 tons per acre, but the test grown in Fruitland’s sandy soil yielded only about 20 tons per acre.
“Anytime you grow a new crop, there’s going to be some problems,” Lawson said. “We want to identify that before we go to a commercial scale.”
Beets grown in Fruitland exhibited symptoms of a fungal disease called Rhizoctonia, and suffered from nitrogen and boron deficiencies that Lawson will try to correct with fertilization during a second set of tests next year.
Lawson will also attempt deeper tilling and less soil compaction to prevent roots from heaving out of the soil. He said the roots hit a “hard pan,” or dense layer of dirt several inches below the surface, that they could not penetrate.
“If we correct those (problems), we should be able to get up there or better,” he said of the results in Crawfordsville.
Rick Whittaker, president of Heartland Renewable Energy in Muscatine, said results from the Crawfordsville test met minimal yields the company needs to make ethanol from beets.
“If we can get that again consistently, we’ll be in good shape,” Whittaker said.
Heartland Renewable Energy announced plans last fall to build a plant in Muscatine that would produce an estimated 10 million gallons of ethanol per year from sugar-based feedstock, including beets.
The company is in the process of testing its design and obtaining financing, Whittaker said.
“We had hoped to break ground either this fall or next spring. That may be postponed, but we’re not going to give up,” he said.
Heartland Renewable Energy can produce about twice as much ethanol from an acre of beets than an acre of corn, which could free up farmland for food production, Whittaker said, and the process uses one-third less water.
During the ethanol production process, the beets are ground up and the juice is extracted into “thick juice” that can be stored for as long as a year and a half, and used to operate the ethanol plant year-round, Whittaker said.
The company hopes area farmers will grow beets to supply the ethanol plant.
Jim Finley, a retired corn and soybean farmer, said he would consider growing beets if he still farmed, but would first want to wait for the outcome of tests of more varieties next year aimed at increasing yield.
He was one of several people who said he attended the field day because he was “just curious.”
Farmers can plant beet seeds with planters for corn or soybeans, Lawson said, but they will need a different metering plate for the smaller beet seeds.
Harvesting, however, requires specialized machinery to remove foliage and lift the beet out of the ground.
“There’s a lot of good used equipment you can buy for very cheap,” Meier said.
Whittaker said Heartland Renewable Energy is also considering options to rent the equipment to farmers, or retain an individual who can provide harvesting services.
Emily Heaton, an ISU agronomy professor, said sugar-based crops will be one source needed to meet federal mandates for renewable fuels.
But, she said, “no crop alone is going to get us to the mandate.”
BEETS: BY THE NUMBERSCopyright 2008, by the Muscatine Journal
Estimated income per ton: $42 (consistent over several years)
Estimated expenses per ton*
- Herbicide (post-emergence): $20
- Insecticide/fungicide: $25
- Fertilizer (broadcast, starter and side dress): $48
- Harvesting: $80
* Based on 2007 figures
