Fossil fuels are not a renewable resource and as fuel prices rise, farmers are seeking renewable fuels that they can produce on their farms to improve the farm energetic and economic efficiency. At the NESARE dairy cropping systems project, we are managing and monitoring two diverse systems with a total of 12 crop entry points scaled to 1/20ththe size of a 240-acre PA dairy farm. They are no-till cropping systems that incorporate cover crops, green manure, and legume crops, manure injection, integrated pest management, and multiple weed control strategies to reduce herbicide use. Additionally, canola is pressed to obtain straight vegetable oil (SVO) and the left-over meal can be fed to the dairy herd. Two of our goals are to determine: i) how much of the fossil energy required for crop production is saved by replacing diesel with SVO produced from canola grown on farm and ii) whether processing SVO on- or off-farm is more economical. We used the Farm Energy Analysis Tool (FEAT) to conduct an energetic analysis of the dairy cropping systems offset by SVO fuel, using crop yields from 2011. We also accounted for crop production needs, including all farm inputs (ex. fertilizers, fossil fuels), equipment, and labor.
Results/Conclusions
In 2011, we grew enough canola SVO to power 2/3 of our crop production activies, which only included tractor-pulled operations, and had unused canola SVO that could be sold off-farm. An economic trade-off exists between processing canola to SVO on-farm compared to hiring someone to do it off-farm. We also determined that the farm produced enough SVO to reduce the total fossil energy required for crop production by 15% compared to a fully-diesel powered farm. Our results suggest that a farmer could grow their own fuel on a mid-sized PA dairy farm, resulting in a significant reduction in total energy requirements and a potential economic gain.