URBANDALE, Iowa - Heath Ellison, CEMSA Program Manager for the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), will review the results of a pilot project that looked at energy conservation on the farm in his presentation entitled, “Strategies for Improving Energy Efficiency in the Field.”

Through ISA, several crop consultants worked with 50 farmers, evaluating energy used in crop production practices, grain drying and transportation, and nutrient usage during the 2007 growing season. Ellison will present the types of changes the farmers in the study looked at making and show the relationships in energy usage between different practices.

Ellison says farmers have commented that this has proven to be a very interesting study on a very timely topic. “Farmers who come to this presentation will better understand how energy is consumed through their farming operation and will get an idea of what areas to look at to improve efficiency and save on input costs.”

“Many of the farmers in the study weren’t surprised by how much total energy is needed to grow a crop, but they were surprised by the relationships observed in energy consumption between different tillage, drying, and nutrient practices. We’ll talk about that, and we’ll also discuss when and where some of the tools we used in our evaluation will be available.”

The presentation will be given at the Iowa Soybean Association’s All in a Day’s Work event at Summerset Winery in Indianola, Iowa, Thursday, March 20th beginning at 6:00 p.m.