Dupont/Bunge Announce Treus

Chuck Zimmerman

Treus AnnouncementOne of the big announcements here at the Farm Progress Show on opening day was from Bunge and Dupont who have a biotech alliance. Basically they’ve created a new brand, “Treus.” This is being done to “reflect their expansion of the companies’ soy collaboration beyond food and nutrition products to include industrial applications, biofuels and other opportunities.”

Low linolenic soybean oil produced from Pioneer® brand soybean varieties, and previously marketed as NUTRIUM Low Linolenic Soybean Oil, will now be marketed as TREUS™ Low Linolenic Soybean Oil.

DuPont has a significant effort to deliver new technologies to the growing biofuels market, which includes improving biofuel production through improved seed and crop protection products; developing new technologies to allow conversion of cellulose to biofuels; and developing next generation biofuels, including biobutanol. In addition to developing corn hybrids for ethanol, DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., is characterizing Pioneer® brand soybean varieties for oil content to determine impact on biodiesel production.

I interviewed Troy Hobbs, Business Manager, Bunge/Dupont Biotech Alliance. He describes the changes in more detail and what this means for producers. Troy is pictured on the left of the Treus sign. On the right is Jason Klootwyk, Bunge, Asst. Commercial Manager, Grain Division.

You can listen to my interview with Troy here: Listen To MP3 Troy Hobbs Interview (3 min MP3) Note: I wasn’t using my regular recorder but the audio is acceptable.

Full Release

Agribusiness, Audio, Biodiesel, Biotech, Ethanol

Panda Powers Plants With Poop

Cindy Zimmerman

Panda Development GroupTexas-based Panda Energy has announced plans to build a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Sherman County, Texas.

According to a news release, the Sherman plant will generate the steam used in the ethanol manufacturing process by gasifying more than 1 billion pounds of cattle manure a year. Once complete, it will be one of the most fuel efficient ethanol refineries in the nation and equal in size to Panda’s Hereford facility which is the largest biomass-fueled ethanol plant in the United States.

The Sherman facility is the fourth 100 million gallon ethanol project announced by Panda, and the third to be powered by cattle manure.

Ethanol, Facilities

Paseo Investment Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

MSA cargill Paseo Biofuels, the Kansas City biodiesel plant joint venture between Cargill and Missouri Soybean growers announced earlier this month, is holding an investment meeting this week.

It will take place at 1:00 p.m. Thursday at the Farm Credit Services office off Hwy 65 North in Marshall, Missouri.

No website yet, so for more information about Paseo Biofuels they suggest you call 573-635-3819.

Biodiesel

American Agriculture on the Move

Cindy Zimmerman

AAM The American Agriculture Movement is organizing a “Drive for American Bio-Energy for Jobs, Family Farms, and National Security.”

According to the AAM, a “small group of patriotic family farm advocates, business people, and concerned citizens” will travel east from Kansas City to Washington, D.C. in antique tractors and cars “in an effort to raise public awareness about the contribution agriculture can make to help bring energy security to the American people.” They plan to converge on the Mall in DC on October 5.

AAM is supporting the Declaration of Independence from Foreign Energy, which reads:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve their dependence on foreign energy which has connected them to others, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and commerce demand requires that the Congress of the United States of America declare a policy that ensures this energy independence. Only then can Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness be assured to future generations! We hold these truths to be self-evident that all energy sources are not created equal; that some are endowed by their creators with certain unalienable characteristics; that among these are abundance, renewability, and environmental compatibility and that, to secure these characteristics the federal government must provide support for renewable biomass resources. For America to have secure and affordable energy the supply must be diverse, decentralized, domestic and renewable and provide non-monopolistic marketing systems to assure energy Independence for the people. To this end we the undersigned demand the passage of the American Renewable Biomass Energy Security Tax-credit!

Agribusiness, Energy

First Terminal Certified For Biodiesel

Cindy Zimmerman

Sprague Sprague Energy Corp. of New Hampshire has become the first oil terminal operator in the United States to earn BQ-9000 Certified Marketer status by the National Biodiesel Board, according to releases from both Sprague and NBB.

“This designation demonstrates Sprague’s commitment to supplying our customers with the highest quality biodiesel,” said Sprague President and CEO John McClellan. “It is our responsibility to prevent off-specification biodiesel from entering the marketplace and the BQ-9000 program ensures this. Put simply, if it doesn’t meet BQ-9000 quality standards, we won’t sell it.”

This year, Sprague has opened the first rack-blended biodiesel terminal in Albany, NY, enabling home heating and diesel fuel retailers throughout Upstate New York, Vermont and Western Massachusetts to supply a precisely blended biofuel product to their customers. Sprague’s Albany terminal, which also stores approximately 40 million gallons of traditional petroleum fuels, stores 40,000 gallons of pure biodiesel (also referred to as “neat” or B100). The B100 is blended with diesel fuel (“Biodiesel”) for over-the-road applications and #2 heating oil (“Bioheat”) for residential and commercial heating applications. The biofuel content is typically 2, 5, or 20 percent of the blended fuel.

New York Governor George E. Pataki, speaking at the Albany facility’s grand opening said “We recognize the need to reduce our dependence on imported energy, and this new facility shows that this vital energy transition is not only possible, but already underway.”

Biodiesel

Debunking The Food vs. Fuel Myth

Chuck Zimmerman

Ron Litterer Being Interviewed By Tom Steever - Brownfield NetworkThe incoming 1st Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association is Ron Litterer, Greene, IA. Here at the Farm Progress Show, I talked to Ron about the impact of using more and more corn for fuel and what his thoughts are on the issue of how that affects other uses of the commodity. Ron’s being interviewed here by Tom Steever of Brownfield Ag News.

Ron says that people need to realize we don’t have a “static” supply and that our American farmers can produce enough corn to handle the projected needs of the fuel and food industries. Ron also feeds hogs and he says that after two years of very low priced corn he has no problem with the fact that the price of corn may rise. In fact, he says this is a good thing for all farmers.

You can listen to my interview with Ron here: Listen To MP3 Ron Litterer Interview (4 min MP3)

Audio, Ethanol

Wind Powering America

Chuck Zimmerman

Kelcy SchroderHelping me here at the Farm Progress Show is Kelcy Schroder, Iowa State University student. She’s here courtesy of the Monsanto, future ag journalist program, getting some new media experience. One of the first interviews she did was on wind power. Here’s her story:

New Ag Markets are coming out everyday but Wind Energy is becoming more popular. Many of you have seen the wind turbines in northwestern Iowa, and also in many other western states.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Wind turbines are located in rural areas so they can generate energy for urban areas long with rural areas too. Farmers may still plant crops around the turbines and graze livestock and not have an effect on the turbines. Unlike most electric generated sources, the wind turbines do not comsume water! There are many pros to owning or being a part-owner in a wind turbine. In my interview with Roya Stanley, from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, she also informed me that the USDA will also fund up to 25% of the costs of a wind turbine to be put up.

Wind turbines are being installed across America, but mainly dominated the northwestern part of the United States. Wind turbines are more valuable and have greater contribution to surrounding areas if the area is known for being windy. All 50 states have the capability to power wind turbines but not all of them can support utility-scale power plants.

As technology advances, Wind Energy is going to become more poplular and one of the main sources of energy!

Listen to my interview with Roya here: Listen to MP3 Roya Stanley Interview (5 min. MP3)

Audio, Government, Wind

Monsanto’s Processor Preferred Program

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve Peterson Getting InterviewedHello from the Farm Progress Show in Amana Colonies, IA. This is one of the biggest farm shows in the United States. Over 460 companies are on display out here in the middle of a corn field. The weather is not cooperating yet. It’s raining and muddy but I’m sure it will clear up over the next day or so.

I’m covering the event on our AgWired website and my coverage is sponsored by Monsanto. Before things got kicked off this morning I met Steve Peterson, Monsanto business manager for their Processor Preferred program. Steve’s pictured here during an interview with WITY in the media tent. In my interview with Steve he describes how this program has developed about 90 varieties of corn that are yielding up to 2 to 4 percent more ethanol per bushel than conventional hybrids. He says this helps corn growers get a premium for their crops.

You can listen to my interview with Steve here: Listen To MP3 Steve Peterson Interview (4 min MP3)

Agribusiness, Audio, Ethanol

Ernesto May Dampen Florida Biofuels Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

Fickle Ernesto can’t seem to make up his mind where he plans to go, or even if he’s a hurricane or a tropical storm, so officials planning the Florida Farm to Fuel Summit in Orlando this week are nervously keeping an eye on the weather, just in case.

Several hundred participants from the state and federal government and private industry are planning to attend to discuss incentives and financing opportunities for alternative and renewable fuels in the Sunshine State as well as research, production and distribution programs.

The conference is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The Florida Department of Agriculture officials say if the event is cancelled due to Hurricane Ernesto they will send out an advisory and post the information on the web site.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government

Another Record (yawn)

Cindy Zimmerman

RFA Gotta admit – it’s getting old. Every month is a new record with ethanol production. I mean, just how many times can we say that? But, it’s a good thing – we’ll worry when it starts going down!

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) today announced that U.S. ethanol production increased in June to 318,000 barrels per day (b/d), an all-time record. That is an increase of 25,000 b/d from May and a rise of nearly 28% from June 2005.

Demand for ethanol also rose to record levels in June at 395,000 b/d. That represents a 46,000 b/d jump from May and an increase of more than 42% from the same period a year ago.

Ethanol