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This publication discusses the environmental benefits of planting miscanthus — a tall, perennial grass — on lands that otherwise have poor results with traditional row crops.
This publication offers an overview of the cultivation, harvest, and marketing opportunities of sweet sorghum in North Carolina and the Southeast.
This publication discusses the economic value of facilities that generate power using biomass contribute to North Carolina’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS).
This publication defines many of the questions often asked about biomass-based energy, the associated technologies and producing woody biomass. These questions and their answers will help you understand terms and concepts commonly associated with biomass energy.
This publication gives an overview of biomass fuels, important characteristics for consumers to consider, and the economics of using these fuels.
This publication explains the pelleting process and considerations for consumers interested in either developing small-scale heating pellet production systems or burning pellets to meet their heating needs.
This publication reviews the basic steps and cost factors associated with woody biomass harvest, processing, and transportation. This provides the landowner with the basic technology and general economics of biomass production in North Carolina and forest management options currently available.
A new group of cover crops for winter and summer use include mustards, oilseed radishes and turnips. When young, these plants resemble turnip greens, are very succulent and have a low C:N ratio, resulting in rapid decomposition when incorporated into the soil. However, if allowed to mature, bolt and flower, they produce a large amount of biomass in a short period of time and become woody, resulting in slower decomposition than when killed at an immature stage.
This publication describes how emerging biomass markets can increase your timber health and productivity through harvesting, stand replacement, thinning, crop tree release and fuel reduction.
This publication summarizes the results of multiple North Carolina field trials that evaluated agronomic management and alternatives that extend the switchgrass feedstock supply beyond traditional harvest times.
Prism sweep and line intercept methods were compared for accuracy and efficiency to measure woody biomass residues on a recently harvested site in Eastern North Carolina. A 100% tally control on 0.1 acre plots was used to compare volume estimates of tested methods. Estimates of residual volume were accurate and not significantly different. Prism sweeps required an average of three minutes per plot, whereas line intersect samples averaged seventeen minutes per plot. Prism sweeps were accurate and five times more efficient than line intersect samples.
This publication describes the types of forests and conditions that can be improved by biomass harvesting, and where such harvest may be less than ideal, to help you determine the right management choice for your land and situation.
This publication discusses a study to compare five winter pea genotypes to crimson clover and hairy vetch for biomass production in mixture with various small grains.
This study examined the impact of termination timing on cereal rye biomass across 4 North Carolina locations for 2 growing seasons. Termination times were 4 weeks before and at soybean planting. Biomass samples were collected to determine if delaying termination significantly impacted the biomass achieved by the cereal rye cover. Cereal rye biomass ranged from 1325.4 lbs/acre to 6006.5 lbs/acre across environments and treatments. Delaying termination (Green) resulted in significantly higher cereal rye biomass for only 3 of 8 environments. The remaining 5 environments saw no significant gain in biomass from delaying termination an additional 4 weeks. These results suggest that terminating cereal rye at soybean planting may not be necessary to maximize biomass in our Southeastern climate.
