"Thom Stewart" wrote
Are you saying Switchgrass isn't a Native to the USA? Vito, You better
read up on American History! At one time, in the Mid-west,South,and
Northern Plains it was all the Human Eye could see. It was what the
Cowboys designed "Chaps" for. It grows about 10ft Tall in one growning
season.

No, just that I've never seen or heard of it despite crossing the country many
times. Funny no historians or writers of that time, including my thrice-great
grandfather who led any number of wagon trains ever mention 10' high grass with
1/4" stalks blocking their way. Maybe the Buffalo kept it trimmed grin

Here is a write up on "Switchgrass" Long; Very long but really worth the
read.

Evangalists sat the same about the Bible.

The grass stretched as far as the eye could see, and hundreds more miles
beyond that. An ocean of grass-deep enough to swallow a horse and
rider-swaying and singing in the steady wind of the Great Plains. §

Yet nobody noticed it??

The American prairie-tens of millions of acres- once looked like
this. But that was centuries ago, before the coming of the white man,
the railroad, and the steel plow. Today, corn and beans hold sway, and
the remnants of America's tallgrass prairie are confined mostly to parks
and preserves.

Ahhh, I don't think so. I've been to most western parks and never saw 10'
grass.

§ Now, though, in research plots and laboratories in the Plains
states and even in the Deep South the seeds of change are germinating.
The tall, native grasses of the prairie, so vital to our land's
ecological past, may prove equally vital to its economic future. Such
grasses once fed millions of bison. Soon, grown as energy crops, they
may help fuel millions of cars and trucks, spin power turbines, and
supply chemicals to American industries.

Really plunks your heart strings doesn't it? Prose worthy of the old snake oil
salesmen. No wonder they're enjoying all that grant money.

Test plots of switchgrass at Auburn University have produced up to 15
tons of dry biomass per acre, and five- year yields average 11.5
tons-enough to make 1,150 gallons of ethanol per acre each year.

How does that compare to corn?

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) believes that biofuels-made from crops
of native grasses, such as fast- growing switchgrass-could reduce the
nation's dependence on foreign oil, curb emissions of the "greenhouse
gas" carbon dioxide,.....

Back in 1978, Gas in California cost $1.20/gal compared to 0.40 in Mexico.
Asked why the head Mexican explained "Because we don't have a DOE."

Kindly explain how burning 1.5 gallon of ethanol vs 1 gallon of gas reduces CO2.

Switchgrass is big and
it's tough-after a good growing season, it can stand 10 feet high,
with stems as thick and strong as hardwood pencils.

snip biblethumping

Switchgrass can be cut and baled with standard farming equipment.

Bwahahahaha! Sure it can. Ask a farmer to borrow his haymaking equipment to
harvest 10' high grass with stems like hardwood pencils.

Yield of dreams .........., Bransby's site holds the one-year
record at 15 tons per acre.

And how much energy and chemicals did Bransby use to produce and dry those 15
tons/acre?

Those are dry tons weighed after all the moisture's been baked out.
Convert that into ethanol, an alcohol that can fuel vehicles, and it
equals about 1,500 gallons per acre. Bransby's 6-year average, 11.5 tons
a year, translates into about 11,500 gallons of ethanol per acre.

Meaningless info unless we are told how many BTUs/gallon are needed to grow,
harvest, dry and cook then distill the grass to get a gallon of ethanol and how
many BTUs of energy do we get back.

If switchgrass was so prevalent, and beneficial, why do cattle pastures not use
it still? If it's such a great feed why does everybody grow corn? Why did out
ancestors work so hard to eradicate it? Maybe we otta sic the mythbusters onto
it.