Lots of people believed in cellulosic ethanol for years and money was spent to figure out how to turn biomass (leftover) into more ethanol. Nobody in this country does it. There is one plant in Brazil that turns sugarcane biomass into ethanol. Here we turn corn into ethanol, the protein part is fed to cattle (DDG’s or WDG’s), syrup is sold off, sometimes the CO2 is sold off as dry ice.
Our local plant uses 160 semi loads of grain daily. Every day. There’s 3 plants I can drive to, so some competition. That’s where the grain’s going. Can you imagine how much stover you would need daily to make ethanol? And it’s not like it’s free to bale it all up and haul it around. And the stover is loaded with nutrients the next crop needs, so if you use it up you have to buy lots more fertilizer.
Usually when stover is fed the whole stalk and ear is ground up in the field and kept anaerobic in a bunker or silo where it ferments and is fed as silage. The articles I read had data that was not consistent about anything. Goats are picky eaters unless they’re starving. I toyed with the idea of trying it some, just to see how they feel about it. There’s not much protein in silage and milk goats need lots of protein, so we feed alfalfa hay here.
