Belknap Township farmer trying to develop switchgrass as a renewable energy source

While water flows along the Swan River through the Delekta Centennial Farm, as it has for more than 100 years, economic changes are forcing the winds of change to blow. Jim Delekta, who operates a 1,200 acre farming operation with his wife, Laurie, in Belknap Township, is constantly trying to find a better way to do business, whether it be during the winter months, or when he is riding in a tractor for hours on end. He is always trying to find a more efficient way to make a living. When gasoline was a little more than a buck a gallon, conventional tillage was relatively inexpensive compared to the more than $2 a gallon gasoline that farmers had to pay last year and the $3 a gallon that farmers await this summer. ?I kept asking myself, if I keep leaving it up to someone else, you are at their mercy,? said Delekta from the driveway of his farm, overshadowed by three large barns. ?Like now, with these gas prices, I am riding up and down the fields causing it. I am here burning just as much fuel and really not conserving. I asked myself, what can I do?? He started by reducing the time the field needed to be tilled. It then went to a minimum tillage and no tillage at all. Efficiency on a farm can be the difference between profits or deficits.

EVENTUALLY, JIM was led to a crop that seems to need little maintenance. Delekta is looking at the emerging market of switch grass as a way to put the bread and butter on the table for his family of four. Little was known about switch grass before President George W. Bush?s State-of-the-Union speech earlier this year. Even some agriculture producers were not familiar with the product, everyone except for Delekta and Presque Isle County MSU Extension director Dave Glenn. Delekta already had been writing Congressmen email letters about the product, before the speech. Switchgrass is a summer perennial grass that is native to North America. It is resistant to many pests and plant diseases, and it is capable of producing high yields with very low applications of fertilizer. At one time it was a farmer?s nuisance but now, ironically, it may become a farmer?s best friend. Delekta has been working with Glenn to develop the crop as a renewable energy resource. ?Right now for most of my crops, I have to work the field every year,? said Delekta. ?With this grass, I plant it once and for the next 10 years, I don?t plant it, I don?t work that ground, I don?t do anything, I just harvest a crop.

?I am saying, why work that ground if we plant the switch grass for eight years. Instead of burning corn, because maybe corn costs too much for you economically to heat your house. Hey, we burn this grass.? He just received the first shipment. A small stack of white bags is stacked on a single-pallet in one of his equipment storage barns.

DELEKTA WOULD like to pelletize the switch grass to use in corn furnaces, or to use the crop for utilization in a biomass plant to produce electricity. He was recently contacted by a ?major business? from the area about using the switchgrass to produce electricity. ?We can just take this big bale and put it in this big furnace. That heats the water to drive the big turbine to create the electricity,? said Delekta. With a few glitches still needing to be worked out, Delekta applied for a 21st Century grant for research and development. He originally was looking at using the grant to purchase equipment to pelletize the switchgrass, but instead has decided to make sure the development of the crop is the best choice for his family and potential customers. Some of the problems include the burning of a less than optimum level of ash, and while it is at a safe level, there may be a way to feed the pellets into the fire so they burn more efficiently and create less smoke.

Another part of the problem is that eve

ry step of the process, technology has been running in the rear view mirror. ?It makes me mad that we are a couple of years behind in technology.? A few years ago, the switchgrass seed had to be hand picked until equipment was developed to harvest. In addition, pellet dyes are not strong enough to handle switch grass. And lastly, there are only four corn furnaces on the market that burn the pellets efficiently. At this point, the optimistic farmer, who is not always willing to farm the way it has been done for the last 100 plus years, Delekta is willing to iron out the problems, and somehow make the product work.

As sure as the waters of Swan River will eventually empty into Lake Huron, this ambitious agriculture entrepreneur will find a way to make a living for himself and maybe open a few doors for others in the county.