Wind power could blow your energy bills away

I think we all can agree controlling the increases in our energy bill is appealing. That was the idea behind one session at the 2009 Midwest Value-Added Agriculture Conference held in Rochester, Minn., in late January. Howard McElroy of Winkleman’s Environmentally Responsible Construction in Brainerd, Minn., outlined options for implementing a small-scale wind turbine on farms. Farms can generate electricity for their own use and sell the excess to their local power utility depending on the turbine's size. Wind turbines won’t control odor or the gas everyone’s been talking about like a methane digester will. But, wind turbines are a lot more cost appealing for a small farmer looking at adding a renewable source of energy to his or her farm. Grants and tax credits are available, too. The typical payback period for a farm’s small wind turbine is between 6 to 12 years, considering tax incentives. “We’ve always tried to be kind to the environment,” said Clare Palmquist of Marshik Dairy in Pierz, Minn., and a one-year owner of a wind turbine. Clare along with her husband Dean Marshik operate the dairy and milk 80 cows. Besides feeling good about using a renewable source of energy, the farm is pleased with what it has done to its energy bill. “It has cut down our energy bill by about a third or a fourth,” Clare said. “Dairy farms use a lot of energy; if we were just a residential home, we would be selling a lot of energy” she added.

To learn more about how energy is created from wind, view this video
To learn if there is wind energy potential in your area, click here

Farm tractor sales down nearly 10% for the year

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) releases monthly flash reports detailing retail sales for farm tractors and self-propelled combines. They use data from most, but not all, manufacturers from each category. While their report does not specifically link purchases to dairy farms, it’s not hard to look at this graph and notice a trend for 2008 (see graph from AEM below). According to retail sales trends the last five years, peak sales occur in spring during planting and see their year low in November after harvest. Then, year-end buying picks up during the month of December to end the year a little higher.

While 2008 did follow this traditional pattern; its sales were down throughout the year and ended much lower in December. Even though farms reported record profits in 2007, a decrease in sales by 20% in the month of November is something easily noticed. The biggest loser in this category were the <40 HP tractors down 26.3%. Year-to-date sales posted a 10% decline for all farm tractors.

Those year-to-date totals did include a few gainers however. Sales of 4WD farm tractors actually increased by 5.8% in December and by 21% for the year. Yet their tiny volume compared to other tractors did little for monthly and yearly averages. Self-propelled combines gained too. Year-to-date, self-propelled combine sales increased 3.5% in December and 19.1% for the year.