Over on our sister AgWired site we’ve had coverage of New Holland activities at the CMA Music Fest. One of those is the annual Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race. It provides a great opportunity to promote renewable fuels to the country music loving public.

Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (left) and Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones (right) were two of the competitors out here at the Race today. In this post you can watch Joe give it all he had this year, which was good but just a tad short. I’m betting he’ll be back though. He really commends Michael Peterson for being such an advocate for renewable fuels like biodiesel (the tractor was running on B20) and also New Holland for their support. He says that this country music audience is a great one to expose to the message.

Listen to my interview with Joe:

Watch Joe ride:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

Officials at Penn State University say there has been no negative effects on tractors that they moved up to running on 100 percent biodiesel. The school started running its tractors on B20 in 2002 and more recently began testing three New Holland tractors (out of the 100 the school uses) on the B100.

This story by the college’s newspaper, The Daily Collegian quotes Glen Cauffman, Penn State manager of farm operations and facilities, as saying there’s been no degraded performance or power in the two years they’ve been testing the higher biodiesel content:

“[Using biodiesel] is the right thing to do because it is contributing to the greening of Penn State,” Cauffman said.

“Petroleum diesel emits particles out of the exhaust of vehicles that are hazardous to the environment,” he said. “Those particles are especially bad for humans because when they get in your lungs, they are very difficult for the body to get rid of.”

The use of biodiesel fuels can translate from farming machinery into the lives of most Americans, said Andre Boehman, professor of fuel science and engineering.

“We all should be driving diesel vehicles. They are anywhere from 30 to 100 percent more efficient in miles per gallon,” Boehman said.

As we reported a couple of weeks ago, New Holland has approved the use of 100 percent biodiesel in all equipment with New Holland-manufactured diesel engines.

New Holland representatives Gene Hemphill and Michael Long were at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting last week talking with farm broadcasters about that announcement and other news from New Holland.

In an interview with Domestic Fuel, Long talked about the extensive testing and development New Holland has conducted using B100 in real-life conditions and the importance of using quality biodiesel from reputable dealers.

Here is an interview with Michael Long: