From the Chair

By Martin Kerns

I have a new acronym that you will be hearing a lot - DSM. It is not a chemical but stands for Demand Side Management. This naturally has to do with energy. Usually you would think of only electrical energy, but our energy problem certainly is much bigger than just electrical demand. First, we have to realize our country and we farmers have an unquenchable thirst for energy. So it is easy to see why we have to learn to manage all of our energy demands. Second, we must understand the importance of energy to our economy and our lives – it is first and foremost. Knowing these facts, the question becomes how do we manage our energy needs?

Our Soil & Water District has been working on this for several years, but with the cost of energy escalating so fast, we plan to step up finding new ways to manage our needs. At this time our no-till drilling experience has saved cooperating producers time, money and water. We keep finding different times throughout the year to effectively use the drills to seed new crops or over-seed old stands. Ideas for use of these drills seem to be endless. This is only the beginning however since we have to become more energy and water efficient to be competitive in global markets.

We all should be looking at the most efficient use of our lands. The rule is “put the most input and effort in your best soils; reduce the input on the poorer land.” Some of the poor soil could be put to a different use that requires little or no input at all. Making the most efficient use of all our land may entail changing your irrigation method, timing or cropping pattern.

There are already many new innovations out there. Some are currently in use, some are produced but not proven and some are not yet environmentally acceptable. The following is a short list of these:

· New fuels made from plant oil

· Gasification of waste plant and forest material

· Gas made from animal waste

· New motors – rotary, light weight, highly efficient and made for any HP needs and can burn any kind of combustible liquid

· On-farm wind machines for electricity production

· Window glass solar panels

· Speeded up farm composting of waste plant and animal material to be used for fertilizer and side dressing

· Small reactors and breeder plants for production of electricity for small municipalities and towns

These are just a few of the energy producing or saving innovations and technologies for the future. But until they are on line, we need to use DSM!