NCGA
Growers Discuss Energy Management Issues at CSP Meeting (10-29-04)
National Corn Growers
Association (NCGA) members Pat Dumoulin and Terry Hilgedick last
week participated in a Natural Resource
Conservation Service (NRCS) listening session on the conservation
security program’s (CSP) contribution to energy management
on farms and ranches.
The meeting, held in St. Louis, covered energy audits, conservation
opportunities, climate change issues, on-farm energy generation
possibilities, liquid fuel replacement operations and the correlation
between soil quality and energy.
“Discussions centered on energy conservation as part of
the CSP, a new territory being covered by NRCS. It was an informative
meeting,” said Hilgedick.
Hilgedick spoke to the group about the use of ethanol in his farming
operation and the potential for its use in non-traditional ways
such as home heating and grain drying.
Among the featured
panelists were U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief Economist
Keith Collins, who spoke about energy and farm
economy, and Bruce Knight, chief of NRCS.
Knight touched on the CSP interim ruling and noted there were
13,441 comments and 152 individual submissions. In addition to
the topic of energy conservation, NRCS representatives spoke on
the proposal to expand the CSP program from 18 watersheds to 200-300
in 2005, involving all 50 states in the program. Discussions also
centered on energy conservation as part of the CSP.