Corn Becomes ‘King’ Of
(Continued from Pago 1)
car will not be hard to start.
In addition, they held train
ing seminars for 500 mechanics
to explain what ethanol is and
that ethanol has been driven a
trillion miles. After the promo
tion program, 95 percent of the
filling stations in Cleveland use
an ethanol blend. Nebraska
state police have been using
ethanol burning vehicles for 12
years.
The follow-up to the Cleve
land campaign is to tell every
one about the success of the first
campeign. Ethanol reduced car
bon monxide by millions of
tons, the gas price did not rise,
cars started, and gas mileage
did not go down.
“We are taking credit for the
ethanol fuels program and what
it did to clean up the air in
Cleveland, what it did to create
jobs, and what it did for the
environment,” Wagner said.
In Peoria, Illinois, 14 new
diesel buses are running on 95
percent pure ethanol. The fuel
has 5 percent gasoline so people
do not drink it. Ohio com grow
ers brought one of those buses
to their state’s ag day and took
the governor, press corps and
legislators for a ride.
"When you get the press on
their knees, smelling tail pipes,
and finding there is no carbon
coming out, you make a firm
believer out of them," Wagner
said. This is the message we
must tell.”
Wagner reported that in testi
mony in Washington for the
Clean Air Act, when Eric Bonn
testified for ethanol, he sat a
shot glass of pure ethanol and
pure gasoline in front of him. At
the conclusion of his testimony,
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he drank the shot of ethanol. But
all the 29 or 30 oil presidents in
attendance refused to drink
their gasoline. “It would have
killed them,” Wagner said.
“That’s the story we must tell.”
A unique project for the Ohio
com growers has been the spon
sorship of an ethanol burning
race car. This “funny car” is dri
ven by Mark Thomas, a farm
boy from Canton. Thomas has
won three straight world
championships with the spon
sored car. The com growers
have spent $32,000, but 62 mil
lion people saw Thomas on
ESPN and another 400,000 saw
him in person. “It’s the best pro
ject we have done dollar for dol
lar,” Wagner said.
When the Bush adminstra
tion announced in October that
ethanol would be part of refor
mulated gasoline in the Gean
Air Act, “We hit a home run,”
Wagner said.
“But now a new adminstra
tion needs to be convinced.
Ethanol is a friend of the envir
onmentlist. If we can keep our
research data to them, we are
going to win. But big oil has 27
full-time lobbyists working in
Washington. The National
Com Growers has three persons
doing everything.
“Big oil doesn’t want to give
up their maiket share, but we
only want a small part of it. As
we say in our advertisements,
‘lO percent blend takes 25 per
cent of the carbon monxide
out.’ We think that’s a very
good trade-off.”
Another research project
supported by the Ohio com
growers is coal desulfurization.
The research is in the later
stages and if successful, will be
Marketplace
supported by the coal industry.
The process would use 300 mil
lion bushels of com just to
desulfurize Ohio coal produc
tion. Other states have even
more coal than Ohio, and the
prospect of major com usage is
great if it works.
Other new com products in
various stages of research and
development include a charcoal
lighter that comes out as a foam
and causes no smoke or odor.
Clay pigeons made out of com
starch, bio-degradable bags and
fast food packageing are in the
works for marketing. Also a
road deicer that is completely
benign to the underground
water and is non-corrosive and
a super-absorbant baby diaper
can be made from com.
At the end of his presenta
tion, Wagner gave a dramatic
demonstration with a small
amount of a com product pow
der placed in a glass of water.
Within seconds the powder had
turned the water into a glob of
jelly-like substance with no
stickiness or odor. He said one
pound of this powder will
absorb 1400 pounds of water in
30 seconds, and in 60 seconds it
will drink a ton of water.
“The potential for new pro
ducts made from com is excit
ing,” Wagner said. “But the
challenges are many. Big oil
doens’t want to lose its market
and Congress isn’t interested.
In addition, we have a new
administration, and even our
neighbors to deal with. No one
else is going to help you. We
need to join hands as farmers
and meet the challengs of the
next century.”
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Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 17,1993—Page
Recently reported research
from a farmer-managed trial at
the University of Wisconsin
has confirmed what many Pen
nsylvania no-tillers have been
seeing already that com no
tilled into a fall killed sod is an
effective practice.
In studies recently reported
in the Journal of Production
Agriculture, no-till com in a fall
killed sod was compared to no
till com in a spring killed sod
and to a tillage program. The
tillage programs varied
depending on the grower
involved and ranged from a
chisel-disk system to a mold
board plow.
The tests were repeated on
six different sites in central and
western Wisconsin. Herbicide
programs for killing the sod
varied but usually included
Roundup for the fall kill and
split applications of atrazine
plus an application of Gramox
one for the spring kill.
Averaged over the six sites,
com yields were highest with
the fall kill no-till treatment
r _
v
€®lM TALK NIWO
PENNSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
Fall-Kill Best
For No-Tilling
After
Greg W. Roth
(GdWEKf
Sod
(120 bushels/acre), and lowest
with the spring kill no-till treat
ment (98 bushels/acre). Yields
using the growers existing til
lage program were intermedi
ate (114 bushels/acre).
The researchers attributed
most of the yield differences to
inconsistent weed control with
the spring-applied treatments
and an increased potential for
soil moisture depletion with the
spring-applied herbicide.
Residue cover at planting
was greatest for the spring kill
system at 72 percent. The fall
kill system had a lower, but still
acceptable, S 3 percent residue
coverage under these
conditions.
Potential disadvantages of
the fall kill no-till system
include the need to decide on
fields to rotate in the fall and
giving up the potential for mak
ing a late harvest.
Beside the yield advantages
found in this study, the fall kill
system here in Pennsylvania
has been a very effective way to
control the perennial weeds and
often results in an excellent
seedbed in the spring.
JLI
fi
Pa.
Master
Corn
Growers
Association
201