New Calculator Helps Farmers Determine Costs, Benefits of Switching to Energy Crops
by Gary Truitt (Hoosier Ag Today) Agricultural economists at the University of Illinois have been calculating the costs for farmers to produce biomass energy crops as renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. In fact – they have created a feedstock cost and profitability calculator for farmers to make their own assessment using their parameters. Illinois Ag Economist Madhu Khanna says farmers can customize the costs based on their current farming operation, current returns on the land they are thinking of converting and determine what it would cost to grow an energy crop on it instead. From there – Khanna says they can decide the minimum price they would need to make it worthwhile. READ MORE and MORE and MORE and MORE



