Things today were a bit early at 6, but it was a fun day. We went to a sustainable farm where the farmer, Tom Cory, raises grass-fed beef, chickens, goats, and lamb. The Corys didn’t seem to be organic or anything like that, but they didn’t feed soy meal like most people, and they didn’t grow GMOs on their small farms. They had a lot of out-of-the-box things that I found interesting, such as using wetland area near their pastures to serve as a well for their grazing animals (sheep and cattle). For their chickens, they had a mobile pen and egg barn so that they could graze, but still remain safe from predators. An interesting middle ground for cage free, since it was a decent size and had open sun and open ground access, but not completely open. Personally, they also didn’t believe in vaccinating (children or animals), and tried to live without processed foods. It became clear that they supported gut health and probiotics like fermented foods, which is something I knew nothing about and found a bit interesting. They also made some home remedies out of things like activated charcoal and essential oils as well as animal broth. They were really good people, and although their ideas are a bit out of the ordinary they seem to work for them and that’s their belief/choice. I can say that the vast majority of medicines are naturally based and charcoal is still used as a detox in hospitals so there is definitely some merit to the ideas.

It was the first farm with a system I had seen before with composting, mulching, and animal rotations through their grazing ground. Interestingly they pointed out that they wanted a blend of grasses for the animals so that both the area is more resilient, but also so the animals have a varied diet which means varying nutrients. Resilience comes from this system since the different grasses are each suited to different climates and nutrient loads, so even if either of those shift at least one of the grasses will still do well. The fact that the animals get that varied diet is something we haven’t heard yet, and I’ve thought about it myself before so I find merit in it for either grass-fed or feed stock animals (who get hay, DDGS, soymeal, and sometimes corn to have a similar effect). We also got to milk goats here which was fun, but by noon when we stopped working I think the majority of the group was a bit exhausted since we were helping out more than we have before and even though I was tired I was glad we were able to be a bit more hands on with the Cory family. Sadly this was also our first-hand experience with death on a farm as we tried to haul a weak sheep to the farm, so it could get a bit more attention and it actually died during the drive. It was apparently born with a bit of a respiratory issue and left to graze since it was initially doing better, but had recently been much weaker. Our professor said its a normal part of the farm, albeit an unpleasant one. Everything gets sick or dies occasionally and with the number of animals any livestock farmer has, some are going to die before being sold.

Next today was the ethanol plant which was very similar to the biodiesel one. The main difference other than the majority of the details in the process was that instead of starting with the byproduct of animal feed (the biodiesel plant used soy oil from making soymeal), the ethanol plant made animal feed as the byproduct of production along with things like corn oil and some CO2 (which they cooled to liquid, bottled, and sold instead of emitted). As a sustainability major I’ve had some issue with taking nutrients in the form of stalks and leaves to be made into fuel (cellulosic ethanol), but the guide said that there has been research to say how much can be removed without detriment to the soil (30%). I still feel it’s not the best use of resources seeing as how much goes into making the corn, but that’s my personal belief. One discussion my friends and I have had about ethanol is how inefficient it is with corn and how nonsensical it is to put so much energy and resources into a crop for fuel instead of using something less intensive like algae, kudzu, switchgrass, or something else quick growing and low maintenance (whereas corn requires lots of water, lots of spraying, lots of nutrients, and lots of attention). The person we toured with said that the main reason is that the two options for ethanol were to build for the most effective materials like sugar cane or switchgrass, or to build for what’s available which is corn. They can and sometimes do other grains with very little change to the equipment, and he said he believed cellulosic would slowly transition to other plants, but there’s no real market for the others so they don’t do it for the others yet. Interestingly I also learned that some plants make oils which are suitable for biodiesel like algae whereas others are high starch (which means high sugar possibilities, high alcohol possibilities) like switchgrass, and they can’t really be used vice versa easily. He also said biodiesel already is making progress towards these other fuel sources, and I’ve heard that other countries suited to better crop plants like Brazil with sugar cane do use these other sources for ethanol. I still prefer the possibilities with other types of renewable fuels which don’t rely on agricultural nutrients to any extent, such as http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/brainstuff/invention-hydrocarbon-fuels-produced-directly-from-solar-energy/ or hydrogen if we could improve the technology. Electric vehicles also have future potential assuming the resources needed to build them are able to meet the demand. These could be especially successful in conjunction with renewable ideas like https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#description, http://crowdenergy.org/ocean-energy-press-release/, http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/wave-power-farm-sets-sail/, and the dozens of other renewable energy projects going on (a fellow sus major, and I recently discussed some of these via Facebook which is why I knew so many).