I keep getting people asking about the
Energy required to produce Bio-Diesel, (or biofuel, Ethanol or Bio-Diesel);
mainly thinking that it takes more energy to produce them than what you get in
return or what it takes to make it.
I know that with Ethanol the numbers
indicate about 1.7-1 (or close to 2-1), but not sure what they are for
Bio-Diesel. Can anyone help provide details or specific links to facts that will
help set us all straight??
Thank you....Dave B.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Tom Irwin
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 10:54 AM
To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] New question on oil seed crops and ley farmingHi Andres,Castor beans grow wild here in Uruguay as well. I have some deep seated childhood memories of castor oil as an emetic. Just the smell makes me gag. I'll use it with a mask if I can find no other source but it is kind of a last resort material for me. The yields are good though and it's essentially free for the taking. I was looking at jojoba as a natural fence material but I think I'm a bit too wet here. I suspect I'd have lots of fungus problems than in drier climates. I may use raspberry or blackberries instead. The weather is is rather mild. We actually had a light frost day this winter. The summer's reach about 38 C. but you can expect rain in a day or so to bring those temps back down to 28. It's mostly flat grassland here with 38-78 cm of rainfall. This year we'll probably exceed the upper end. I'm hoping global warming will keep it there but I'm not sure. Lot's of people think it could shift to the dry end. I just haven't seen much evidence in that direction.I keep telling everyone who will listen that oil prices are going to change the nature of agriculture back to small organic farms. Now I'm going to show them. I'm a bit squimish in killing animals, too. I was raised as a city boy. I was giving thought to lethal injection with potassium chloride solution. Pigs and humans have lots of similarities. It's worth a question to the local vet.Tom Irwin
From: Andres Yver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Sent: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:17:27 -0300
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] New question on oil seed crops and ley farming
Hello Tom,
>> Hi Keith and all,
>>
>> You mentioned in a previous thread that you liked castor beans as an
>> oil seed crop.
You're in Uruguay, right? In Chile, castor bean is a serious weed. It
grows extremely fast, reaching over two meters height and diameter
within 8 months. If you have moisture, as near an irrigation canal, you
can collect many hundreds of seeds, even perhaps a thousand or more
from each plant. It thrives on no management or additional
fertilization. Roadsides are a good place to find them. I considered
them, together with jojoba, as an oil seed crop, before selling out and
moving to Argentina. I crushed one, yes one, plant's worth in a
primitive homemade press and got about a liter of oil. i haven't gone
to purdue's newcrop site to see what average yields are. The area i was
in was a mediterranean climate, 250mm annual rainfall, min temps down
near the canal were around -2 or 3 C in the dead of winter. Summers got
up to around 35C max. Bear in mind it was summer dry, winter wet. I
think Uruguay, as is Argentina, tends to be more continental, ie summer
wet and winter dry.
I composted the seedcake and found you need to include lots of woody
feedstock as well as cow manure (what was at hand) to avoid rancidity.
In other words, don't try to compost it as a major component of your
compost. If you heat your seeds first by spreading in the sun on top of
shade cloth, you get higher yields.
Sorry about the unscientific comments, your mileage may vary, etc.
Weeds are an opportunity waiting to happen, they have lots of
unexplored potential, on many levels. Right now, we have an area that
is overrun with comfrey, which is here considered a noxious weed.
Following Newman Turner's lead (see JTF small farms library for his and
other invaluable books on farming the easy way), we have wilted it and
are feeding it to rabbits. They LOVE it!!!
Good luck with your future farm. Working for yourself can't be beat.
Especially if what you are doing is not only pleasurable but gets
other, local, people interested and heading down the path to
sustainability. I've found that, here in South America -and probably
everywhere, the best arguments for sustainability in general, and ley
farming in particular, are economic ones. It's just way cheaper to farm
this way. Farmers of other stripes sit up and notice when you get
successfully through a season without having used any inputs labelled
Monsanto or Bayer or BASF...
On a personal note, our winter rye (Korn to you in europe) is just
starting to head, is close to 160cm tall, and has NO rust (puccinia) of
any kind, nor any insect infestation. We're setting up an electric
fence around those fields today, and tomorrow our neighbors horses and
mules will be grazing it down prior to discing and seeding a summer ley.
I can't stress overmuch how easy ley farming really is. Things just
fall into place, and everything you do benefits something (or perhaps a
few things, if you're paying attention) else, making the next steps
even easier...
What was not easy was killing Dick and George last week. Anybody have
any tips for killing your animals in a way that sends them off to
better pastures without fear? Dick got a 9mm round behind the ear,
George a knife into the heart. Both ways were to me horrible. The uni
kids didn't see that as we did it a couple of days before they got
here. There has to be a better way. Succinyl choline was mentioned i
think on this list? It's way too high tech, though. How about an
injection of air into an artery like they do (used to do?) at the
mortuary- or is that an urban legend?
andres
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