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Study says CRP mixes don’t live up to biofuel potential

Mixed prairie grasses that are used in Conservation Reserve Program lands did not live up to their potential as biomass crops for cellulosic biofuel production, in an eight-year study. D.K. Lee, associate crop science professor at the University of Illinois, tells Brownfield most of the CRP perennial grasses they tested did not produce more than two-tons per acre, even with nitrogen application, “We did some nitrogen management but we found out that 50 pounds of nitrogen was best. We could increase the yield with 100 pounds but, economically, that’s not a good practice.”

Lee says the most limiting factor to biomass production with CRP grass mixes was precipitation. That’s one reason, he says, that Missouri did the best of the eight states studied, “Missouri was one of the highest yielding sites because Missouri has a longer growing season – and, they have higher precipitation than other locations, typically.”

Besides Missouri, CRP grass mixes for biomass production were studied in North Dakota, Montana, Georgia — and in Kansas and Oklahoma where he 2012 drought nearly decimated those perennial grasses, yielding less than one ton per acre.