He's turning heads with switchgrass

Photo by Dan Zinkand used courtesy Iowa Farmer Today.

John Sellers, Jr. tends 520 acres in southern Iowa's roller-coaster landscape near Corydon in Wayne County. For him, the most pleasing scenes include cattle in a grassy paddock, and not the stalk and stubble-covered eroding hilltops of corn and soybean fields.

But Sellers is no dreamer. He's a realist who knows that what's best for this fragile landscape is grassland, more grassland than livestock will ever support. That's why he's been working for the last 20 years to help the land return to a crop that grew naturally here a century ago: switchgrass.

Sellers is president of Prairie Lands Bio-Products, Inc., a group of southern Iowa farmers who came together three years ago to develop new, sustainable markets from products derived from switchgrass and other native grasses. The association has 60 members who cooperate with the Chariton Valley Biomass Project. They hope to grow enough switchgrass that can be burned with coal to produce electric power and sell as value-added products.

Switchgrass for biomass, wildlife habitat
A longtime conservationist who has farmed in the area since 1970, Sellers has 80 acres of switchgrass in the Chariton Valley project. An additional 60 acres of switchgrass is set aside for wildlife habitat. Nearly half of his land is enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, but he and other farmers in the area have an exemption to harvest switchgrass for the Chariton Valley project. In addition to a commercial pumpkin enterprise, the only other crops he plants are corn, oats and hay for his small cow/calf operation.

"Switchgrass is a very sustainable crop," says Sellers, who has become a widely traveled spokesman for the project. "It has a massive root mass and it can weather lots of adverse conditions."

He admits that the economic incentive isn't there yet for switchgrass. "We're competing with coal that's mined in Wyoming and delivered to Ottumwa for $15 a ton," he said. "That's a whale of a deal. We will need other incentives to make our switchgrass competitive."

In addition to the Chariton Valley project, for which he is a field coordinator, he also is president of the Iowa Forage and Grassland Council and vice-president of the Rathbun Land and Water Alliance. He was recently appointed by Governor Vilsack to the Iowa State Soil Conservation Committee. He has been invited on numerous occasions to testify in Washington on ethanol, biomass-derived energy and other topics.

His goal, he says, is to return Iowa to a forage-based economy.

"We need to look at all of the benefits of growing forage and native grasses," he said. "We may find that Iowa-grown energy is a bargain that can also help farmers and protect our soil, air and water."