Students line fields, plant miscanthus crop by hand

Des Moines Register
By DAN PILLER • dpiller@dmreg.com • May 8, 2010

Creston, Ia. - Every birth is hard labor, and the arrival of miscanthus grass on a 14-acre plot just north of Creston this week was no exception.

Miscanthus has been touted as an eventual Iowa-grown successor to corn as feedstock for ethanol plants. Failing that, the grass can be made into pellets that can fuel not only ethanol or biodiesel plants but also electricity generators.

But first the grass must be planted by hand. While an Iowa corn farmer can plant dozens, if not hundreds, of acres in a single day, a dozen students from Southwestern Community College and Iowa State University put the miscanthus crop on a 14-acre plot by hand on Thursday.

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