Is There a New Crop in the Future for Our Area?

Miscanthus? No, it's not a disease or a street drug but it is something that could have a significant impact on our local economy in the future. Local political and business leaders and other interested parties got a closer look at Miscanthus - otherwise know as power cane or a form of switch grass **on Tuesday as Mendel Bioenergy Seeds and associated partners presented information and displayed a local field trial of the new crop. The presentation began at Lake Tiak O'Khata where Mendel employees provided details about the development of the crop - including the genetic engineering **required to make it a feasible product across much of the eastern United States.
Field trials are in progress across the country with locations in Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennesse, Indiana and Kansas to name just a few. Mike Poteet, a research associate with Mendel has been involved with the Winston County test plot since it was planted in April of 2011. Poteet indicated that the miscanthus has performed better than expected in the local plot as it has reached heights of 7-8 feet in its first year. By the second and third years the plants should reach 12-15' in height and produce from 10-15 tons of dry material per acre. Miscanthus seems to grow well in our area, it requires little fertilizer input and after it is established, herbicide treatment is usually at a minimum.Wildlife and livestock prefer not to feed on the crop. A perennial, miscanthus will produce for typically 10 years without replanting. It has been shown to outproduce the more common switchgrass.

Locals examine miscanthus in the field

Miscanthus is harvested on a yearly basis during the winter and baled in large bales. The dry product is used in bio-energy production either through direct burning or pelletization. The crop harvested here in Winston County will be baled and shipped to England where it will be pelletized as fuel.
Mendel Representative, Rasto Ivanic, indicated that while the company is not yet at a commercial production level, their goal is to ramp up crop production over the next two years to approximately 100,000 acres with the hope that the local area will be a big part of that production. Ivanic stated, "It's a challenge to introduce a new crop. We hope to work with the County and State Officials to make this work." Energy crops are expected to increase in production with 60-80 million acres by 2030. Perennial energy grasses such as Miscanthus are expected to make up 60% of this total.
Because it is a new crop,new methods of harvesting are being developed as well. Using a header much like a combine header, miscanthus is cut and wind rowed prior to baling . Bales are designed to be 4'x4'x8'
Mendel and their partners hope to have production in place by 2014-2015 with the goal of production contracts between the producer, the end user and Mendel to make it a profitable operation for all involved.
To find out more about Mendel BioEnergy and Miscanthus, visit their website at  http://www.mendelbio.com/bioenergy/index.php

To view a slideshow of Tuesday's event including photos of miscanthus and the harvesting process, click here.

Mendel Rep Rasto Ivanic 

**Feb 10th

WWN would like to clarify a few facts stated in a recent article (dated Feb 7, 2012) “Miscanthus Could Have Significant Impact on Local Economy”.  The article inaccurately stated that miscanthus is a form of switchgrass.  Miscanthus and switchgrass are distinct species and besides being energy crops, they don't have all that much in common. Here is a more accurate description from Mendel’s website, “Miscanthus is a genus of about 15 species of C4 perennial grasses. Public varieties of Miscanthus giganteus, sterile hybrids between M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus, have been trialed as a bioenergy feedstock source in Europe since the early 1980's.”

In addition, the article implied that genetic engineering was employed in the development of Mendel’s variety of miscanthus. While Mendel has developed sterile and seed producing varieties of miscanthus, no genetic engineering was involved and Mendel has no future plans to genetically engineer miscanthus.

WWN apologizes for any misconception that may have been created  by these inaccuracies.

W. McCully