goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 30, 2009 5:44:44 PM
"What the ISU report did not tell you is that 20-30% of IA farm land was hit with several inches of rain that started Friday night (the 25th) and that once it stops raining it will take another 7-10 days for the fields to dry before they can get back to planting again".
Sorry Cummins. That report was dated April 20th before the rains came, and todays report which I did listen to has upgraded total planted acres to over 60% which is way over the last two years planting pace.
Rain, yes. And over much of the state of Iowa. According to Elwynn Taylor (ISU Climatologist) 25% of the state got close to 1", 25% did not get enough, and 50% got 4" or more.
And yes, stickyvalves was right, some areas in Iowa are have already resumed planting.
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goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 30, 2009 5:29:33 PM
"Iowa's a big state, some parts may not need it, but some areas seem to be irrigating their ethanol crops. And these figures are surely well out of date with water consumption for irrigation having increased since this was put out."
There you go again, putting snips and bits of information and not telling the real story. I am amazed that you would rely on figures from such old outdated sources.
And here are the latest figures I could come up with for irrigation in Iowa.The 2007 Census of Agriculture shows the State of Iowa with 188,765 acres of irrigated land – but that’s not all corn acres (the census doesn’t break things down that far). A good deal of it would be other crops – turf grass, corn for silage, etc. Even if all of it were corn, it would be less than 2%, as we harvested 13.9 million acres of corn in 2007.
I have been in Iowa before. There are plenty of turf grass farms. No doubt all of them are irrigated.
Roger Elmore, corn agronomist ISU just sent me an email and he claimed that in 2002 there was 86,261 corn acres irrigated.
It is pretty safe to say that less than 1% of all yellow dent corn in Iowa is irrigated. Virtually all of the irrigated corn acres is in western Iowa where the climate is more closely associated with Nebraska.
"Among the major ethanol-producing states, Iowa uses the least water, with about six gallons of water used for each gallon of ethanol. Minnesota, which in 2007 produced roughly a third as much ethanol as Iowa, uses about 19 gallons of water per ethanol gallon.?"
I will dispute these figures on any day. Most of the plants built in Iowa during the past 5 years use down around 3 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol. 19 gallons in Minnesota????? I doubt that is true. I doubt that any plant in America is using that much.
Ethanol plants in America are doing their share to conserve water. Virtually all are recycling water. Even their waste water goes through a water treatment facility before it is realeased. A good portion of the water in the process goes up in steam......and eventually will form clouds and fall back to earth as rain.
Oh..... did you ever hear of evapotranspiration????? Corn typically will have about .4" of water transpire through it leaves per day back into the atomsphere during the growing season. Guess what? That vapor will also eventually form clouds and fall back to earth as rain.
This water issue is way over blown. No doubt the city of Montreal uses more water than all of the ethanol plants in Iowa combined.
By the way. Care to take a stab at how much water is used to get a barrel of tar sand crude out of the ground in Alberta? And that is long before that sticky substance goes to the refinery.
[Edited by: goldseeker at 4/30/2009 6:32:50 PM EST]
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gougedQC
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Montreal
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Message Posted: Apr 29, 2009 8:18:32 PM
Iowa's a big state, some parts may not need it, but some areas seem to be irrigating their ethanol crops. And these figures are surely well out of date with water consumption for irrigation having increased since this was put out.
******* Other major uses of groundwater in Iowa include irrigation, with over 90 percent of needed water coming from groundwater sources, and livestock and poultry production, with 75 percent of their total withdrawals being from groundwater The U.S. Geological Survey compiled figures for 1985 estimating the contribution for total groundwater withdrawals from each of the state’s major aquifers. The left pie chart on page 55 totals these estimates, and we see that Iowa’s relatively shallow surficial aquifers led the way in supplying 60 percent of the groundwater withdrawals in Iowa.
1995- agriculture (livestock) 110 million gal per day
1995-irrigation 39 million gal/day
*****
Meanwhile, from a pro-eth site
"Among the major ethanol-producing states, Iowa uses the least water, with about six gallons of water used for each gallon of ethanol. Minnesota, which in 2007 produced roughly a third as much ethanol as Iowa, uses about 19 gallons of water per ethanol gallon.?
So while Iowa, is better than others, that's still a lot of water per gallon of eth.
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stickyvalves
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Iowa
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Message Posted: Apr 29, 2009 2:17:48 PM
Somewhere back down the list of comments was a question about corn irrigation acres in Iowa in J-J-A. If you research it, you will find that there are very few irrigated acres in Iowa. Iowa crops depend on timely rainfall and deep soils with a lot of water holding capacity.
[Edited by: stickyvalves at 4/29/2009 3:18:24 PM EST]
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stickyvalves
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Iowa
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Message Posted: Apr 29, 2009 2:13:07 PM
Well, we've gone from water usage for ethanol production to talking about planting progress in Iowa. Iowa farmers did plant 40% of the Iowa corn crop in seven days last week. With 24 and 32 row planters, it doesn't take long to plant big amounts of acres. Parts did get 4-7 inches of rain Sat-Sun. But that did not cover all of the state. I know where there are planters running today.
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Cummins2500
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Iowa
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Message Posted: Apr 29, 2009 10:50:21 AM
What the ISU report did not tell you is that 20-30% of IA farm land was hit with several inches of rain that started Friday night (the 25th) and that once it stops raining it will take another 7-10 days for the fields to dry before they can get back to planting again and more rain is forecast for the next day or two. I bet all those farmers who last fall and this spring spent big $$$ putting in drainage pipe are glad they did so as some places that got heavy rain the past few days are no longer duck ponds after a heavy rain so they may not lose the seed they just planted.
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goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 27, 2009 3:45:43 PM
Correction. I was slightly off in the current planting conditons for Iowa in my last post. I said that it would more than double from the 6% that was reported on the 19th. Actually as of the 26th I now show 46% of all corn planted in Iowa. Darn, I guess planting conditions are about perfect.
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goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 26, 2009 2:37:46 AM
I just finished listening to the Extension Audio dated April 20th at ISU.
There was reports on there by state climatologist Harry Hilliker, and ISU climatologist Elwynn Taylor. Both were very please and optimistic about planting conditions in Iowa. As of the 19th 6% of this years corn crop had been planted. With the good weather projected for this week, next weeks total will be more than double this.
Both were very optimistic for this springs planting season, as adequate moisture was available statewide. There was no indication that too much or not enough moisture was present.
Now I am only referring to Iowa, and no other state, as this report is from ISU.
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goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 24, 2009 9:57:51 PM
MINNESOTA ETHANOL PLANT EXPLORES USING CITY WASTEWATER
The city of Winnebago discharges a minimum of about 350,000 gallons of treated wastewater into the Blue Earth River each day.
The ethanol plant just east of town uses up to 350,000 gallons of fresh groundwater daily to produce its fuel.
So Corn Plus General Manager Keith Kor talked to Winnebago officials about exploring the possibility of diverting the city’s wastewater from the river to the ethanol plant.
Already, Corn Plus has reduced its ratio to three gallons of water for each gallon of ethanol produced. They would love to get that down to a 1-1 ratio.
When looking at ground-water usage, the ratio could potentially drop close to zero if Corn Plus is able to rely almost exclusively on wastewater from the toilets, bathtubs and sink drains of Winnebago.
It is truely amazing how there are folks that come in here and belly ache all day long about biofuels use in America, but then there are others that go out and "grab the bull by the horns" and creat a big win/win.
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goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 3:35:09 PM
"Another reason to not use corn for ethanol. It uses more energy to make than you get out of it."
You know I am truely amazed at how many people have bought into this false claim and swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.
There are numerous studies out, that shows corn ethanol with a positive energy balance of around 1-1.4, which just happens to be better than gasoline. This will continue to get better, as yields increase and production becomes more efficient.
Even Pimental, hero of the anti-ethanol crowd has admitted that his methology would show a negative energy balance for gasoline also.
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jacksfan
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Lincoln
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 11:41:04 AM
"Back to ignore with you!"
I guess that's easier for your than actually answering my questions.
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jacksfan
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Lincoln
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 10:58:17 AM
"Another reason to not use corn for ethanol. It uses more energy to make than you get out of it. How is that saving anything?"
First of all, your premise is false and based on misinformation happily perpetuated by the Anti-Ethanol Crowd(TM).
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KingManUT
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Salt Lake City
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 10:39:55 AM
Another reason to not use corn for ethanol. It uses more energy to make than you get out of it. How is that saving anything?
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jacksfan
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Lincoln
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 8:55:50 AM
"When you can't attack the science... Attack the source!"
Let me guess, your info on the IATP came straight from the IATP Web site?
Your efforts to defend the IATP as mainstream and credible are hilarious.
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jacksfan
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Lincoln
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 8:53:08 AM
"Now lets explore the Jacksfan claim about BS from an extremist group regarding the post above."
Archer, I thought you had me on your ignore list? Couldn't live without me, huh?
How about a source for your info on ActivistCash? Let me guess, it came from one of the extremist outfits you, gouged and shockjock align with?
If you think gouged's credibility is just fine, yours is even deeper in the tank.
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goldseeker
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West Virginia
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Message Posted: Apr 23, 2009 7:10:14 AM
This is a typical post by gouge. Trying to tell Americans how to farm our lands. He cannot even take care of Canadian lands let alone American.
An example would be the extreme use of water on the tar sands project in Alberta. And when they are through with that water it is so toxic that it has to be put in holding ponds that are so huge that they now can be viewed from outer space.
Now lets see what the real truth is concerning water in Nebraska and Iowa.
According to the latest weather and crop report from Nebraska dated April 20th, widespread precipitation was received with the western half of the state accumulating over 2 inches in some areas.
Topsoil moisture was 78% adequate and 9% surplus. The average is 68% average and 6% surplus.
Subsoil moisture was 77% average and 3% surplus. And the average is 50% adequate and 2 % surplus.
Now lets look at Iowa as reported by the National Agriculture and Statistical Service Iowa Field Office dated April 20th, 2009.
Western Iowa shows a topsoil moisture at 93% adequate and 4% surplus. The state average is 78% adequate and 14% surplus.
Subsoil moisture for the western part of the state is at 89% and surplus at 9%. The state average is at 79% adequate and 18% surplus.
Now in all fairness, moisture in Iowa is down compared to last year. Remember a good part of the state was underwater from late spring floods....remember???
You know gouge, I am truely amazed at you. You come in here on a routine basis and say things that are just not so.
Like Jacksfan says, "Another nail in the coffin for what's left of gouged's credibility."
[Edited by: goldseeker at 4/23/2009 8:12:09 AM EST]
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jacksfan
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Lincoln
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Message Posted: Apr 22, 2009 8:53:37 PM
More BS from another extremist group.
Another nail in the coffin for what's left of gouged's credibility.
"IATP is a prime example of a nonprofit that engages in 'black marketing': the public disparagement of one set of products in order to turn a profit with the competition. By condemning conventional methods of agriculture, for instance, IATP hopes to drive the American market toward “organic-only” food production, a segment of the market in which its directors hold a financial stake."
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