Switchgrass is focus of open house

MADRID — The seed to energy independence could be growing on the Madrid farm of Thomas E. Lee.

"It really is adaptable. It's almost like a weed. It produces a lot of biomass," said Hilary S. Mayton, coordinator of the Bioenergy Feedstock Project at Cornell University, Ithaca. "It's not meant to solve the whole problem. Conservation is key."

Mr. Lee started growing switchgrass last year after attending a seminar on pelleting to see what might work as fuel. His 19 acres of switchgrass, along with plots at Belleville Henderson Central School, Belleville, and W.H. Miner Institute, Chazy, are part of research being conducted by Cornell, the Farm Viability Institute, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program and Community Energy Services.

CES, Canton, is hoping to receive a grant to fund a farm-based pelleting project to help answer how underutilized grassland in the north country might be converted to energy efficiency. The group is looking for a small number of growers and working with SUNY Canton on testing different kinds of burners.

North country farmers looking for maximum yield on their fields, regardless of a crop's nutritional value for animals, might look at growing food that will keep them warm in the winter, said Brent A. Buchanan, a field agent with St. Lawrence County Cornell Cooperative Extension, which has grown small plots of switchgrass since 2000.

Tuesday's field day at Mr. Lee's farm on Smiths Corners Road attracted more than two dozen participants, who learned about current research and projections and the challenges of growing switchgrass. Jonathan L. Parry, ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Potsdam, wasn't able to attend, but the company is developing a biofuel system that can turn any organic matter into gas for heat and power and then process the gas into liquid fuel.

"They're just one company looking at it. That's what's great about American ingenuity," Ms. Mayton said. "Our goal is to provide information on biomass production that these industries are going to need."

Michael E. Hunter, field crops educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, was glad to see the interest.

"This is really where it starts, in the field," he said. "We need this first."

For more information on Cornell's research and links to

related developments, visit http://nybiofuels.info.