hybrid poplars

This document provides presentation style maps of potential crop yield of dedicated bioenergy crops from the publication "Productivity Potential of Bioenergy Crops from the Sun Grant Regional Feedstock Partnership." 2013. Eaton, Laurence, Chris Daly, Mike Halbleib, Vance Owens, Bryce Stokes. ORNL/TM-2013/574.

Abstract:
In 2013 a series of meetings was held across the US with each of the crop teams and the resource assessment team, led by the Oregon State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to review, standardize, and verify yield trials from 2007-2012 crop years and assimilate their outcomes into a national model of biomass yield suitability. The meetings provided a way to “ground truth” yield estimates in order to accurately capture interactions of climate and soils for dedicated energy crops, including switchgrass, energycane, biomass sorghum, CRP grasses, miscanthus x giganteus, hybrid poplar, willow, and pine. The verification of yield data included generating a standardized set of management assumptions for each crop and summarizing site potential yield according to the agreed cultural practices to establish, manage, and harvest each crop. From these sets of funded trials and historical data, yield was estimated across spatial gradients according to soil characteristics and climate history at a 2-week interval. The resulting national grids provide critical information for policymakers and planners of the potential productivity of these pre-commercial crops.

In response to energy security concerns, alternative energy programs such as biomass energy systems are being
developed to provide energy in the 21st century. For the biomass industry to expand, a variety of feedstocks will need
to be utilized. Large scale production of bioenergy crops could have significant impacts on the United States agricultural
sector in terms of quantities, prices and production location of traditional crops as well as farm income. Though
a number of scenarios were examined to study the impact of bioenergy crop production on the agricultural sector, two
cropland scenarios are presented in this report. Under the wildlife management scenario, the analysis indicates that, at
$30/dry ton (dt) for switchgrass, $31.74/dt for willow and $32.90 for poplar, an estimated 19.4 million acres of
cropland (8.2 million from CRP) could be used to produce 96 million dry tons of bioenergy crops annually at a profit
greater than the profit created by existing uses for the land. In this scenario, traditional crop prices increase from 3
percent to 9 percent (depending on crop) and net farm income increases by $2.8 billion annually. At $40/dt of switchgrass,
$42.32/dt for willow and $43.87/dt for poplar and assuming the production management scenario, an estimated
41.9 million acres (12.9 million from CRP) could be used to produce 188 million dry tons of biomass annually. Under
this scenario, traditional crop prices increase by 8 to 14 percent and net farm income increases by $6 billion annually.