Estimation Methodology for Agricultural Crop Residues - National Basis.

The agricultural sector has a large and significant role to play in helping meet the nation’s energy and economic security goals and maintaining or enhancing environmental quality.  However, accurate assessment of the agricultural biomass resource base will be extremely important in determining numerous environmental impacts as they relate to sustainable production of biomass-related production and utilization scenarios.  Quantitative and qualitative assessment of soil erosion and soil carbon/tilth as it relates to individual biomass resources on select land bases at the sub-county (e.g., soil type) level is critical to defining “sustainability” with respect to large-scale alternate fuel development and production. 
The focus of this work is on development and utilization of a methodology to provide estimations of agricultural crop residue retention and removal rates with respect to soil erosion and soil carbon/tilth on a national scale.  Previous analyses of agricultural crop residue retention rates and possible removal have focused primarily on soil erosion subject to a limited set of cropping rotations and field management practices, mostly in the eastern U.S.  Specifically, this methodology is designed to utilize one (1), two (2), and/or three (3)-year corn, sorghum, and small-grain based (spring and winter wheat, barley, and oats) crop rotations throughout the U.S. at the county level to provide estimations of possible stover and straw quantities on individual soil types within a county subject to meeting select soil erosion and carbon/tilth parameters.  Sensitivities involving yield improvements and future grain and oilseed demand will also be incorporated into the analysis and results will be aggregated across the U.S. to provide estimations on a national basis for each residue type.