Corn Forum: Stover Market Emergence Tipping Forward

by Katie Fletcher (Biomass Magazine) The agricultural industry has reached the point to begin the production of cellulosic ethanol from corn stover. The tipping point has not only been reached in utilizing crop residues, but also in optimizing corn in general to keep up with our exploding population. By 2050 the world’s population is expected to grow by 2 billion people. ... In fact the same amount of food must be raised between now and 2050 as was now and the beginning of time to maintain starvation levels in the world.
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Two panels were held in the morning, with one comprehensively looking at corn stover, including the options for collection, maintaining soil health and crop productivity, the optimization of equipment and collection, and a vision for stakeholder collaboration for the new cellulosic economy. The next panel focused on plant genetics to optimize corn use. Both panels had the future in mind with an emphasis on optimization and efficiency.
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Wangsgard (Scott Wangsgard a biomass marketing specialist with New Holland) identified corn stover collection as one of the biggest challenges facing the industry, noting there is a “mammoth amount of equipment needed for the facilities.” In his presentation he discussed different machinery options for corn stover collection. As the amount of stover left on the ground accumulates, Wangsgard describes the collection technology being developed as a “growing opportunity.” The collection of stover is becoming increasingly important.
“We are seeing increased yields because of corn stover removal,” Wangesgard said. “It is becoming important not just to have stover itself, but for the emerging corn market.”
Corn stover is currently mostly used for feed or bedding. “There are 137 million tons of corn stover presently available,” Wangsgard said. “It is the most readily available biomass we have in the country.”
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“Round bale sales just for corn stover is becoming a bigger and bigger market,” Wanesgard said. Although round bales are predominantly being used in regards to stover, square bales are more efficient when it comes to handling and transporting large amounts.
Baling technology is being developed to adapt to handling corn stover more economically. The way it feeds, increased tying sizes and pickup durability are a few improvements that are helping this industry.
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One of the big challenges is the transportation of the corn stover due to its high volume and low bulk density. Winston Akoto, operation and supply chain director at DuPont Applied Biosciences, saod that bale density is amongst the four highest supply chain cost influencers related to baling operation. The others include harvest rate, bale length and baler field efficiency.
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“You don’t want to remove stover in areas of the field where there is erosion, hill slopes or where high winds, low production levels need the stover to protect against wind erosion,” Weinhold (Brian Weinhold, location coordinator and research leader at USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Agroecosystem Management Research) said. READ MORE