A group of Minnesota farmers plans to grow alfalfa for something other than fueling up livestock.
They’re working with a utility company to turn hay into electricity, hoping to create enough power for a city of 75,000 by the turn of the century.
“Farmers always added value to their hay by running it through their cattle,” said Patty Hahn, a shareholder in the Minnesota Valley Alfalfa Producers Co-operative. “Now you can do it by running it through a power plant.”
The co-op is negotiating a long-term contract with Northern States Power, a utility providing power from nuclear and coal plants to most of Minnesota and parts of two other states.
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The utility began looking for alternative energy sources two years ago when it started running short of space to store spent nuclear fuel.
The company asked the state government for permission to store the waste in above-ground cement casks.
The government agreed on the condition that the company look into other power sources.
Possible fit
The company checked out the University of Minnesota’s Centre for Alternative Plant and Animal Products for ideas. Director Ervin Oelke said alfalfa looked like a possible fit for the company and for farmers.
“We’ve been wanting to get more of a perennial legume in our system besides row crops,” Oelke explained.
Carroll Vance, a research scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture, said farmers in the central part of the state grow a lot of soybeans and corn which need a lot of fertilizer.
Alfalfa draws nitrogen from the air. It needs less fertilizer and leaves nitrogen in the soil for the following crop.
Oelke said alfalfa provides two sources of revenue for farmers. The stems contain lignin, and are good for the power plant, while the leaves can still be made into pellets or cubes and used for a protein supplement for cattle.
“It’s pretty tough to compete just growing biomass to produce electricity or other energy, because you can’t pay enough,” said Oelke.
Vance said USDA plant breeders are looking to old European germplasm to develop new varieties of alfalfa with tall, erect, thick stems and high-protein leaves.
He said the co-op needs to find a way to separate the leaves from the stems.
Without the leaf meal, farmers won’t make enough money to make it worthwhile to grow the crop for power.
Oelke said the co-op will need about 2,000 farmers to grow about 180,000 acres of alfalfa for the plant.
Hahn said 223 shareholders have committed more than 45,000 tonnes to the plant. The co-op hopes to double those numbers soon when it has a new share offering for $50 (U.S.) per tonne, minimum 108 tonnes.
Shareholders are already seeing benefits of belonging to the co-op because it owns an alfalfa processing plant, Hahn said.
“We don’t have to haul our hay to a sale, or we don’t have to advertise it in the newspaper.”
