Energy/Alternative Fuels Field Day is planned in Staples

STAPLES - The Central Lakes Agricultural Center in Staples will host a free Energy/Alternative Fuels Field Day Aug. 13.

The event is from 12:30-4:45 p.m. on the site two miles north of the stoplights in Staples on County Road 30 and one-half mile west of the Staples campus of Central Lakes College on County Road 2.

Planned rain or shine, the event features simultaneous workshops in the afternoon and is followed by the annual Horticulture Evening from 4:45-8:30 p.m. hosted by the Living Legacy Gardens at the Ag Center.

The workshops:

• Energy Crops for Minnesota - Bob Schafer, Central Lakes Ag Center director.

Tour biomass plots of switchgrass, prairie cordgrass, bluestem, wheatgrass, mixed prairie, miscanthus, survivor false indigo. Tour sweet sorghum plot consisting of 10 different varieties. A brief presentation on sweet sorghum for ethanol production at the Ag Center's ethanol plant will be given. (Demonstration plots planted by Dwight Tober, Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Materials Center.)

Tour camelina plots - a low-input oilseed for biodiesel production.

• Farm-scale oil extraction using the Komet press - Paul Aakre, University of Minnesota, Crookston.

• On-farm biodiesel production using the portable MCGYAN biodiesel production process - Greg Mowry, University of St. Thomas.

• Using perennials for fuel, pelletizing and burning in a biomass boiler - Eric Kreidermacher, Pork and Plants, Altur, Minn.

Registration from 12:30-12:45 p.m. is followed by the presentations from 12:45-1:45 p.m., 2-3 p.m. and 3:15-4:15 p.m. They are scheduled in designated areas at the Ag Center and will repeat so that participants may choose up to three different sessions during the day.