New Energy Farms to host grower events in three countries

Energy crop developer New Energy Farms has announced three separate events in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. that will provide landowners, farmers and end users with a chance to learn more about the different energy crops the company grows, including miscanthus.

“We understand there are many demonstration events, but we actually grow the crops commercially, so farmers coming to our events will get real on-farm experiences of growing energy crops,” said Paul Carver, NEF co-founder and CEO. “We feel that makes our events unique. As an example, the site in Ontario already uses 30,000 tons of biomass to heat greenhouses, we have large scale crops, and have built an energy crop processing site, so it’s all real. Farmers can come and kick the tires. We don’t think growers in the U.S. or Canada can see this anywhere else.” 

At the events, dubbed Open Days, attendees will be able to view large-scale plantations of energy crops with harvesting, energy crop machinery, a bioprocessing center, expert presentations, and new machinery developments for low-cost energy crop establishment. An automatic miscanthus planter will be among the machinery on display, according to Carver. “We’ll also be providing some further details of some new machinery developments that will be available to growers in the three regions in spring 2013: a completely new crop establishment system for a range of perennial energy crops.”  

Full agendas will be sent to those interested in attending, and they will vary with each location. “We have different end-use projects and different demonstrations going on,” Carver explained. “In the U.K., we will also be looking at much older crops, some over 12 years old, as the market is more established there. We will also be going through the economics of production and the lowest cost supply options for establishing miscanthus and arundo donax, via simple plant and machinery supply with no complicated royalty or licensing programs.”

All Open Days are on NEF sites in Leamington, Ontario, Tifton, Ga., and Somerset, England.  There is no cost to attend. To register, click here.