By Jack Money
Business Writer
As printed in The Oklahoman, April 11, 2008.

It is a whole new world out there when it comes to growing energy, one farmer says.

Carl Schroeder, 48, of Okarche said a recent biofuels conference in Kingfisher broadened his mind.

"They (bioenergy supporters) are trying to get people to open their eyes that there is the possibility of raising something other than wheat and cattle in our area," Schroeder said. "It was time well spent."

At the event, Schroeder and hundreds of other people who attended heard from state Rep. James Covey, D-Custer City, Mike Marlow, secretary-treasurer of the Great Plains Canola Association, Terry Detrick, vice president of the Oklahoma Farmers Union and chief executive and chairman of Oklahoma Sustainable Energy, Clay Pope, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Yates Adcock of Adcock Ranch, and Steven Rhines, vice president and general counsel of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation.

Schroeder, who grew up farming and still farms his family's land near Okarche, said he always had been a traditional Oklahoma wheat farmer until last year, when he and his son decided to switch their operation to no-till farming.

Enhancing his income
Then, they needed other crops to rotate into their fields, and they chose canola in 2007.

Schroeder said he chose the crop, thinking that it might ultimately be headed to a plant where it would be converted into frying oil.

But after attending the conference, Schroeder said he realized it also could be converted into a biofuel.

"I think it was something we all need to look at to enhance our income in the future," he said. "Whether that is adding ethanol or biodiesel to petroleum, or to make our own and blend it, that is something we are going to have to look at in the future to stay profitable."

At the conference, state Rep. Covey told the farmers there isn't a lot Oklahoma's Legislature is doing with biofuels this year.

But he also noted there has been a legislative shift in recent years toward the topic, and said farmers need to be made aware there are crops they can grow in Oklahoma today that provide them with value they perhaps didn't once have.

Growing milo and hull-less barley, for example, are good possibilities for Oklahoman farmers in the future because of their use in renewable fuels, he said.

Crops open new markets
Farmers growing those crops will have "a place to send their crops that is not wholly dependent upon the export market," Covey said. Schroeder, meanwhile, said he was impressed with the yield from some milo he custom planted last year, and will plant a couple hundred more acres of the crop on his land after his wheat is harvested in June.

Sunflowers under consideration
Both his wheat and his current crop of canola will be headed to a nearby elevator owned by Plains Partners Cooperative, and on to other operations from there. Another crop he is interested in is sunflowers, because cooperatives are taking that crop, too, he said.

"I have actually enjoyed farming more in the past year than I have in the past several, because I've gotten to try new things," he said.

This article appeared in The Oklahoman, www.newsok.com, on April 11, 2008.