A new factsheet and video created by a University of Wisconsin-Madison team are the first in a series of materials covering the production of biofuel feedstocks derived from perennial grasses.

The two items were released this month by CenUSA Bioenergy, an Iowa-based, USDA-funded multi-state project focused on developing sustainable systems for biofuel production. They cover methods to optimize harvesting and processing switchgrass to reduce energy required for cutting, drying, conditioning, baling and bale handling.

The factsheet was written by Kevin Shinners, UW-Madison agricultural engineer and professor of biological systems engineering, and Pamela Porter, outreach specialist in the UW-Madison Environmental Resources Center. Shinners also stars in the five-minute video, which was produced last fall at the university’s Arlington Agricultural Research Station.

“These factsheets will educate agricultural producers and others in the industry about perennial grasses and their use as a feedstock for biofuels,” said Ken Moore, CenUSA project director and professor in the Iowa State University department of agronomy. “This series will be a key mechanism for turning what we’re discovering in our research into common practice in the field.”

The harvesting factsheet focuses on switchgrass, a perennial grass native to tall grass prairie region of the United State. Switchgrass has been identified as a leading energy crop, used as a feedstock for biofuels as well as electric generation and heating.

The factsheet can be downloaded for free from the CenUSAWeb site at www.cenusa.iastate.edu (go to “resource library”). View the video online at go.wisc.edu/bioharvest.

Future factsheets will cover topics such as crop establishment, fertility, weed control, storage, the life-cycle impacts of perennial biomass production, ecological systems to reduce water quality impacts and other topics.

The CenUSA Bioenergy project is a multi-state research and education effort to develop a sustainable system for the production of biofuel feedstocks derived from perennial grasses grown on land marginal for row crop production. Partners include Iowa State University, Purdue University; University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; University of Illinois, Champaign; University of Vermont-Burlington; and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

This project is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2011-68005-30411 from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For more information, contact Kevin Shinners, kjshinne@wisc.edu, (608) 263-0756;  or Pamela Porter, pporter@wisc.edu