Cooperating producers and the project field coordinator oversee more than 4,000 acres of switchgrass, and have learned many ways to improve establishment and management of this crop. In general, the use of frost seeding, relatively high rates of pure live seed per acre, and early season weed control have contributed to improved switchgrass establishment. They also hope to show the benefits of combining the production of a corn crop during the initial year of switchgrass.

The use of fertilizer varies with soil, yield and time of harvest, but has commonly included at least 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre and maintenance rates for phosphorus and potassium. Some work has been done to grow legumes with the switchgrass crop as a source of nitrogen.

Harvest typically begins after the first killing frost in October when the grass moisture content is 15 percent or less. Yields can be 30 percent greater at this time than if harvest is delayed until later in the winter or spring.

And harvesting no doubt takes heavy equipment, too.

For example, metropolitan Atlanta claims more than 50 acres A DAY.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that in just the five years between 1992 and 1997 the nation lost 12.8 million acres of agricultural land: cropland (5.3 million acres), pastureland (6.1 million acres), rangeland (1.4 million acres).

Agricultural land also succumbs to forces other than urban development. Arable land is subject to manmade and natural phenomena such as soil erosion, salinization, and waterlogging that can rob its productivity and eventually force its abandonment.

Much of these losses are due to over-exploitation by intensive agricultural practices needed to constantly raise agricultural productivity (yield per acre) in order to provide ever more food for America's and the world's growing populations."
Source:
http://www.numbersusa.com/interests/farmland.html

"Ohio is losing its productive farmland at an astonishing rate.  According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, Ohio had approximately 21 million acres of land in farms in 1950.  By 2002, there were 14 million acres of farmland in Ohio." - Ohio Department of Agriculture

"Our food supply is threatened by development. Eighty-six percent of our fruits and vegetables and 63 percent of our dairy products are produced on the edge of urban areas. The United States is losing two acres of farmland every minute, according to the American Farmland Trust. The rate of loss was 51 percent faster in the 90s than in the 80s. Washington State lost nearly 10,000 prime acres a year between 1992 and 1997 at a rate 30 percent faster than during the previous five years. We're losing the most fertile and productive land most quickly." - American Farmland Trust

Oh well.

What I worry about is whether the market, such as it will be, will induce farmers to plant large tracts of potential vehicle fuel at the expense of potential heating fuel or food.  

Will Trump refrain from flying his helicopter just so others can have a ration of beans?

We haven't prevented spot famine and deprivation during a half-century of plenty, how can we expect it post-peak?

All a matter of perceptions and perspectives . . . .

Sorry I'm so late with that reference. That report is referenced in the Science article reconsidering whether ethanol is energy positive or negative. I have to say, having read the study and report I'm still quite skeptical. To see why, do a search in the report for "drought". You'll find one hit, "None of the scenarios consider the possibility that technology could overcome yield limitations caused by drought and pests or increase nutrient use efficiency." This sounds to me as though they are completely ignoring the climate change predictions of more drought and heavy precipitation events. But, as usual, technology will solve these drought problems.

I can imagine a day in the future when we have moved a significant percentage of our transportation fuels to biofuels, only to be hit by a multi-year drought that drastically reduces biomass production. We already have farmers giving up irrigation because the high cost of natural gas to fuel their pumps makes it uneconomic.

The 'getting on your nerves' is because he is right, and others have tried to point out to you and all the others 'lets grow grass' or 'lets use tree waste' proposals is:

WHEN DO YOU RETURN THE 'WASTE' TO THE SOIL?

At the point where one can obtain/use one of the grass->liquid fuel processes on 40 acres so that the waste doesn't leave the land AND be able to turn a profit in 5 years, then it is a viable idea.  

Otherwise - it is a bad long-term plan.    

You feel your nerve being pinched because part of your brain KNOWS it is a bad long term plan.

Please list the following sources of bio-fuel which threaten to leave you without food:

   1. Corn cobs and stover.

If the cobs are shipped off to a large processing plant and the 'cob waste' is not returned, after years of doing such you WILL have 'no food'.

  2. Switchgrass or Miscanthus Giganticus grown on marginal or erodible land.

What a great plan!   Lets base the energy resource on marginal crop yeilds!   Marginal land means marginal energy production.

In such an energy proposal, erodable land won't survive the mechnical harvesting of the grasses.

If the energy crop on the land doesn't come in, the taxes on the land are STILL due, and tax demands will result in poor planing over time in many cases.

  3. Woody or herbacious material harvested from bioremediation crops (e.g. contaminated with heavy metals).

Now HERE is a workable idea.   So long as society decides that the energy needed to seperate contaminates from useful product in the output is worth the energy.   Thus far, the track record when there is abundant energy to do such hasn't been so good.

Your three points are nice grass-straw men.

What will end up happening in a grass->liquid fuel model is:

1. Farmland farmed for corn/soybeans while cutting present supplement rates by farmers who have no heirs who want to carry on the farm (strip mining the land for cash)  The 'corn stovers' and 'crop waste' - shipped off the land.
   
2. After yeilds drop far enough on food/food waste->energy model, the grass->energy model will be used.  
   
3. Once the grass->energy strip mining is done, the farmer will 'get out of the busines' and sell the land, having maximized the cash profit.