Data shows responsible biomass harvesting is part of good soil management

RenewableEnergyWorld.com
By POET June 1, 2011

Non-traditional stover baling keeps good cover on Emmetsburg, Iowa soil

EMMETSBURG, IOWA POET's contracted biomass removal rates with area farmers are conservative and consistent with good soil management, updated site data gathered by Iowa State University and USDA researchers indicate.

Iowa State University has completed analysis on data from the third year of an ongoing study for POET near Emmetsburg, Iowa to monitor how soil health is affected when crop residue is removed. POET’s planned 25 million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant, dubbed “Project LIBERTY,” will use corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk to produce renewable fuel.

The newest data confirms previous assertions that removing about 1 bone-dry ton per acre (which is about 25 percent of the area’s above-ground crop residue) will not cause significant nutrient loss. In fact, corn yields continued to show no yield loss or moderate increases in fields with this rate of biomass removal.

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