While we talk a lot about using more biodiesel and ethanol, there’s no more fitting place to use the green fuels than the farms where it all starts. A Minnesota farmer took his own advice to use more biofuels to heart, and this article from the Rochester (MN) Post Bulletin explains most farmers should use higher blends because their equipment can handle it:
[Eyota, Minn. farmer Dan] Brandt, who is president of the Olmsted/South Wabasha County Corn and Soybean Growers, discussed his idea of encouraging more biodiesel use with directors and members of the group at their annual meeting. They liked it and encouraged him to proceed…
He’s asking farmers to fill up their farm tanks this spring with higher blends of biodiesel and ethanol. A Twin Cities fire department runs on B20 year-round, he said.
He talked to three fuel suppliers who said they would be ready to supply E20 or E30 or B20 to farms.
“And that’s what farmers don’t know,” Brandt said.
Call your fuel dealer, he said, and ask them to bring a higher blend. Prices should be comparable.
“Nobody’s asking for it (higher blends), and that’s what we have to change,” Brandt said.
The article goes on to quote Kaleb Little, communications and member specialist with the National Biodiesel Board, who says the majority of agricultural manufacturers design their engines to use at least B20, some even allow the use of higher blends. New Holland engines can run B100, Little said.