Domestic Fuel

When it comes to approval of biodiesel in farm machinery, New Holland is outstanding in the field.

In both North America and Europe, New Holland has been a leader in recognizing the importance of biodiesel as a fuel source for agricultural equipment. The company was first to approve the use of biodiesel blends back in 2006 and has since moved to allow biodiesel in all equipment with New Holland manufactured diesel engines, including electronic injection engines with common rail technology.

At the recent National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, most of the New Holland equipment on display proudly displayed soybean biodiesel signage, and company representatives wore buttons proclaiming their support for the domestically-produced fuel. “New Holland has a strong commitment to not only be a part of biodiesel, but also to be a leader in the industry as far as future fuel usage is concerned,” New Holland regional service manager Phil Cobb said at the farm show. He says it was natural for their company to take the lead. “Mainly because our customers are in the soybean areas and grow soybeans,” said Cobb. “Not only does it support farming, we also use the fuel. It’s important for the ag industry to be on the leading edge.”

Cobb says all New Holland equipment is approved for a minimum of five percent biodiesel, with the large combines approved for 100 percent and many of the tractors approved for up to 20 percent.

Listen to my interview with Phil Cobb from the National Farm Machinery Show here:

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If you’ve been a reader of Domestic Fuel for any amount of time, you know how big of a supporter of biodiesel our friends at New Holland have been.

Their efforts and qualities are being noticed around the world as New Holland’s T7070 Auto Command tractor has been tapped as Tractor of the Year at Agritechnica, the world’s largest show for agricultural machinery and equipment. This article from FarmandDairy.com says the tractor also picked up the “Golden Tractor for Design” award, recognizing design excellence focusing on ease of use and operator comfort:

This pair of awards for the T7070 Auto Command adds to the Tractor of the Year and the “Golden Tractor for Design” for 2008 obtained by the T7060 Power Command at the 2007 Agritechnica, making the T7000 Series the most awarded line of tractors in the 13-year history of this award.

Built in New Holland’s Basildon, U.K.facility, the five models from the T7000 Auto Command Series are powered by a new NEF engine, with between 167 and 225 hp that can run on 100 percent biodiesel, and completely developed by Fiat Powertrain Technologies of Turin, Italy.

Agritechnica, held last month in Germany, attracted more than 350,000 people.

Roadsides and median strips may turn out to be the perfect place to grow crops for biodiesel.

“It’s a very non-traditional approach to utilizing some public lands that are not being utilized as well as they could be,” says Utah State University researcher Dallas Hanks. It is estimated that there are some 10 million available acres of land in roadsides, airports, military bases, railroad areas and more that currently require significant maintenance cost that could be used for producing biofuel crops such as safflower and canola which could be harvested a couple times a year. The benefits include a new source for biofuel feedstocks, as well as improved aesthetics and reduced roadside maintenance costs.

“We’ve been lucky enough to get a national coalition with an executive committee and land grant universities all around the country involved in this,” Hanks said during a recent interview at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting. “We are excited about their interest and we are excited to put some seeds in the ground.”

Other partners in the project include the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and New Holland Ag. “New Holland has been wonderful from the get-go on this,” said Hanks. “They were very gracious in giving us some equipment to help us with our research costs and further this project.” NBB has been the main source of funding for the project, for which Hanks says they are very grateful.

Some of the states already moving on the project include Tennessee, Michigan, North Carolina and Washington.

Find out more about this initiative from biodieselsustainability.com and freewaystofuel.org. Listen to or download my interview with Dallas Hanks below.

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A couple of years ago, I told you about how the Utah Department of Transportation was planting safflower, camelina, canola and perennial flax in a safety strip along Interstate 15 and then crushing the seeds to make biodiesel (see my post from May 9, 2007).

The “Freeways-to-Fuel” project, sponsored by the Utah Department of Transportation, the National Biodiesel Board and others, has expanded to a roadside simulation lab at the Utah Botanical Center and beyond… as chronicled in this NBB release:

“This project signals a breakthrough in how America may capitalize on millions of acres of idle lands along roadsides as well as at military bases, airports and local municipalities,” said NBB CEO Joe Jobe.

“Biodiesel is the most diverse fuel on the planet, and we are pleased to have supported the Freeways-to-Fuel program, which can expand that reach even more,” said Jobe. “This initiative can also complement urban farming projects offering fruits and vegetables alongside oilseed crops.”

The project is expanding to 200 acres of Salt Lake City and County land near the airport that will become a future wastewater treatment plant. Right now, it’s just a vacant lot that even caught fire last month. Officials now think it will prove to be good ground to grow a fuel that will burn in our gas tanks.

The Freeways-to-Fuel project in Utah also has academic partners across the nation as well as corporate supporters like New Holland Agriculture.

New Holland sponsored coverage of last week’s Farm Progress Show on our sister website, AgWired.com. Domestic Fuel readers know we’ve worked with the company a number of times in recent years and have documented how committed they are to supporting biodiesel.

While at the show last week I talked with Gene Hemphill, New Holland and Tom Verry, National Biodiesel Board about The Biodiesel Alliance. NBB was the founder of the Alliance and New Holland was the first company of their kind to join.

The Biodiesel Alliance is a diverse coalition of organizations, agencies and businesses from across the nation who find common ground in their support for biodiesel fuel. Founded and managed by the National Biodiesel Board, the Biodiesel Alliance supports information sharing and opportunities to help advance the use of clean-burning, renewable biodiesel fuel that meets high industry standards. As a result, the Biodiesel Alliance is instrumental in helping others to recognize the benefits of biodiesel to human health, the environment, national energy security and the US economy.

Gene and New Holland have been big supporters of the biodiesel industry since the days when it was called soydiesel. The company has been innovative in warranting their tractors on blends of biodiesel fuel up to 100 percent. They’ve also encouraged their dealers to join the alliance and many, many people to join the Biodiesel Backers.

Tom says the number one issue facing the industry right now is the proposed RFS2 that EPA has put forth and for which they’re soliciting comments until later this month. The proposed regs require 1 billion gallons of biomass biodiesel by 2012. That should be accomplished mostly by biodiesel but EPA is penalizing biodiesel through its measurement of its carbon score from the controversial indirect land use issue. He says they’re failing to take into account things like increased efficiency and production of soybeans.

You can listen to my interview with Gene and Tom below:

You can also see a lot of our photos from the show in our Farm Progress Show Photo Album.

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Two biofuels promoters took part in the 4th annual New Holland/Michael Peterson Celebrity Tractor Race held Sunday at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville. Chuck Leavell (left) is probably best known as the versatile keyboardist for the Rolling Stones and Joe Jobe is CEO of the National Biodiesel Board.

Jobe noted that New Holland Boomer being used for the race was fueled with biodiesel and he was proud to be part of the event once again this year. “Not only does New Holland support and approve the use of biodiesel in their vehicles, but they also promote the use of biodiesel nationwide,” said Jobe. Leavell not only supports biodiesel but ethanol as well since he’s a Georgia tree farmer and very interested in cellulosic ethanol production. “There’s a lot of experiments going on with several companies trying to make liquid fuels out of wood chips, cellulosic material and as time goes on it will get easier and easier,” said Leavell.

Here’s a video of Joe Jobe racing in the biodiesel-fueled New Holland Boomer:

See photos from the event here in the 2009 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

Listen to or download Chuck Zimmerman’s interview with Joe Jobe and Chuck Leavell here:

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Truckers and others heard about biodiesel on the XM-Sirius Radio Dave Nemo Show this week featuring National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe and singer/songwriter Michael Peterson for the live show on Friday in Nashville.

Jobe is at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville this week for the New Holland/Michael Peterson Celebrity Tractor Race and he gives New Holland a lot of credit for promoting biodiesel. “New Holland is actually the most supportive OEM of biodiesel in the world,” said Jobe.

He discussed a number of biodiesel related topics during the show, including the concept of planting oilseed crops in highway medians to be harvested for biodiesel. “The state of Utah is planting camelina in the right-of-ways,” Jobe said. “It takes less fuel because when you plant grass you have to mow it once a month, but when you plant camelina it’s one pass to plant, one pass to harvest for the entire growing season.” Then they harvest the camelina, process the seed and turn it into biodiesel to run their tractors.

Jobe also exercised his musical talent on the radio show, playing the harmonica and guitar along with Michael Peterson.

Video of Jobe’s appearance can be seen here on Agwired.com. The Celebrity Tractor Race will be webcast live on Agwired starting at 10:30 am central time on Sunday, June 14.

Listen to or download an edited version of the Dave Nemo Show featuring Joe Jobe and Michael Peterson:

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It’s not quite the Indy 500, but don’t tell that to the guys racing in the New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race! It’s the fourth year for the popular feature of the Country Music Association’s 2009 Music Festival, June 10-14, 2009 in Nashville, TN., and some of the participants are looking for revenge.

The race (which you can see some of last year’s race in the video above) will feature, among others, National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe, who is making his third appearance in the race that features “celebrities” from many professions driving a New Holland compact tractor through an obstacle course of road cones on June 14th:

Jobe, who placed 3rd in the 2008 race, has his eyes set on moving higher in the ratings. One of his main challengers from 2008 is his friend and biodiesel supporter Chuck Leavell, environmentalist, conservationist, author, and 27-year keyboardist for the Rolling Stones. Leavell placed 5th in 2008, but only seconds on the clock separated the two friends. His eyes are also set on placing higher. Adding to the action is country music artist Michael Peterson, also a strong biodiesel supporter, who is hosting the competition for New Holland.

“New Holland is once again taking an industry-leading role in its support of biodiesel,” said Jobe. “They have already led the industry in supporting 100% biodiesel in all of the engines they manufacture, but they are not resting on those achievements. They continue to promote the biodiesel for its benefits to the nation’s energy supply, food supply, and agricultural sector.”

Now, if you can’t be at the race, you can still see live coverage of the event over on our sister Web site, AgWired.com. The coverage begins with preliminary interviews at approximately 10:30 a.m. (Central Time) on Sunday, June 14, 2009. The race will begin at 11:30 a.m. and conclude at approximately 1:30 p.m. See you there!

The National Biodiesel Conference is underway this week in San Francisco with the theme of “Leading Change Now.”

One of the first companies to realize biodiesel’s potential for both farmers and farm machinery was New Holland, thanks to the influence of Gene Hemphill, manager of North American Industry Affairs for the company, pictured here (right) with National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe.

Two years ago, Hemphill received the Biodiesel Innovation Award at this conference for his foresight and support of the industry, which he says goes back over 20 years. “We became involved with it when they were actually calling it soy diesel,” Gene says. “We were the first company to offer a warranty on all of our engines for 20 percent biodiesel and about a year and a half later to offer a warranty for 100 percent biodiesel in all of our engines.”

New Holland’s support for the National Biodiesel Conference includes annual sponsorship of the media room, in addition to other special treats such as the display of Jay Leno’s Eco-Jet concept car and the appearance of Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, who will speak about his support of renewable fuels and entertain at the Tuesday evening reception.

Listen to an interview with Gene Hemphill here:

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Follow all the activities at the National Biodiesel Conference this week on the conference blog.

2009 National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

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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:

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Watch Joe ride:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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