There are still funds available to assist Minnesota Farmers with the establishment of 160 more acres of PCWL crops!! To apply, complete the PCWL Crop establishment application and return it to our office. For more information, or assistance with completing the application contact:
Joe Domeier
Program Manager, Three Rivers RC&D
1160 South Victory Drive
Mankato, Minnesota 56001
507-345-7418
jadomeier@threeriversrcd.org
The Minneapolis Biomass Exchange and the Minnesota Biomass Exchange are free services helping connect producers of biomass in Minnesota with markets for their biomass.
The latest reports and fact sheets are now available. You can find information on crop establishment costs, innovative marketing strategies and why you should consider PCWL crops.
Take a look! New PCWL project photos are here!
Productive Conservation partners are busy finishing Market Development and Field Demonstration Studies
National Biofuels Action Plan Released by Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture
PCWL is a demonstration program that provides incentives to reduce the economic, environmental, and social risks to the farmers growing new alternative conservation crops for energy and emerging industry.
This project was developed because interest has been high with small farmers across Minnesota wanting to grow new crops for conservation and renewable energy. With the help of a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG), we have 1,000 acres to measure results of the Productive Conservation on Working Lands project. It is our goal to secure matching funds from the state to expand the scope of this project.
At its core, the concept of Productive Conservation addresses the issue of agricultural soil and water conservation funding from a market point of view. The theory being, if we can develop markets for crops that offer environmental benefits we can increase establishment of these crops in environmentally sensitive areas. Making conservation on agricultural land profitable is the key to this concept.
Producers are being provided with an incentive of up to $150 per acre for producers who are establishing approved PCWL crops. Crops currently funded include Native grasses for biomass or seed, hybrid poplar, hybrid hazelnuts, native berry bushes, willows for biomass, and native flowers for seed.
In order for perennial crops to develop into mature markets, industry needs a steady and relatively predictable supply. This is a major balancing act we must perform in the early phases of these crops. Farmers are provided little financial incentive to plant perennial crops that have limited market demand. On the other side markets are difficult to establish without a steady supply of raw materials. This is the problem behind the PCWL crop establishment program. By offering up to $150 per acre as an incentive for producers to establish innovative perennial crops, we are lessening the financial risk to these progressive farmers.
MarketingConventional grain crops have well established marketing channels across the country. A major obstacle to the establishment of PCWL crops is the lack of market opportunities. There are currently markets for these crops, but the burden is on the producer to seek these markets out. This can be a time consuming task for the producer as well as the buyer, who often must search wide geographic areas in order to source steady supply for their needs.
Fortunately for conservation minded producers, public policy has been slowly shifting. This move is toward recognizing not only the value extracted from the land that PCWL crops provide, but also recognizing the value of the ecological services these crops provide. Depending on location and the specific crop, these ecological services may include: carbon sequestration, ground water recharge, and wild life habitat, filtration of excess nutrients and degradation of pesticides. These benefits are very real and valuable to society and as such should hold some monetary value.
Taking this viewpoint requires a new concept of what crop marketing can be. As an example - on farms that utilize agritourism, the view and experience provided by a perennial crop such as a diverse native prairie may exceed the value of the crop as biomass. Now add the value of ecological service payments such as carbon credits, wetland banking and phosphorus credits and the profitability of a perennial crop may exceed the profit from a traditional corn and soybean rotation on marginal soils.
Field StudiesUntil very recently, perennial crops have been viewed as either insignificant niche crops or as a conservation tool, as in the Conservation Reserve Program. Neither status garnered much in attention as to the agronomic concerns of these crops. With interest in producing PCWL crops on a field scale increases, the need for information increases as well.
The field demonstrations conducted for PCWL examined native grass establishment for biomass production as well as the energy value of several native grass mixes and short rotation woody crops. With the funding from this project we were able to develop valuable information to assist Minnesota farmers in the transition to Productive Conservation.
Environmental BenefitsPerennial crops offer several benefits over annual row crops when planted on what is generally considered marginal land. Perennial crops generally have deep root systems, allowing them to access moisture and nutrients deeper in the soil profile. This reduces the need for fertilization and irrigation in comparison to nutrient and water hungry annual crops.
Perennial crops also eliminate the need to disturb the soil with annual tillage. This allows natural soil structure to re-develop, increasing water infiltration and reducing runoff. This also helps build soil carbon content, which has the multiple benefits of sequestering carbon and improving soil fertility.
Unlike annually planted crops, perennial crops reduce soil erosion by providing year round ground cover which reduces the erosive energy of wind and rain. When used in filter strips along riparian areas, native grasses have been shown to not only filter runoff, but they aide the breakdown of some pesticides before they reach the water.
Across much of Minnesota the landscape is dominated by an agricultural system dependant on two major crops – corn and soybeans. This limited focus on two crops has had profound effects on the social, economic, and natural environment of rural Minnesota.
The rural farm economy is heavily dependent on the volatile commodities market. That market volatility contributes to long-term economic dependence on government crop subsidies, which have come under increasing scrutiny from urban media and lawmakers. While farm commodity markets have repeatedly set record high prices during the course of this program, we recognize the cyclical nature of farm markets. We hope to prepare participants in PCWL for the eventual down turn in traditional commodity markets by diversifying their production with productive conservation crops. The intensive production of these commodities has contributed to most stretches of streams and rivers in southern Minnesota being considered “impaired” by at least one pollutant.
It is in this context that we begin to look for solutions to the economic and environmental problems plaguing the rural regions of Minnesota. While land idling conservation programs such as Conservation Reserve Program have become the gold standard for conservation, they take land out of production that could be utilized to produce food, fiber and fuel in an environmentally sound manner. As a result there is a push to move conservation programs toward a “working lands conservation” ethic. The thought being that through the promotion of conservation on working lands, we can achieve the desired resource conservation goals while giving the landowner the ability to profit from their conservation lands. This also serves to diversify crop production in the state, making the rural economy less susceptible volatile commodities market.
For more information please contact:
Joe Domeier
Program Manager, Three Rivers RC&D
1160 South Victory Drive
Mankato, Minnesota 56001
507-345-7418
jadomeier@threeriversrcd.org
