Economic Sustainability of Biomass Production.

Eight biomass cropping systems were evaluated for expected grower profitability.  The studied model systems are the subject of field research at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) intensive research sites at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) in Hickory Corners, southwest Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin agronomic research station at Arlington in south-central Wisconsin.  The research design contrasts agronomic systems across several important management attributes: annual vs. perennial, monoculture vs. polyculture, woody vs. herbaceous, cultivated vs. natural, and intensive management vs. low-input management.  The model systems for experimental evaluation were selected across a gradient of management intensity in farmer control of nutrients, pests, tillage, and harvest intensity (proportion of biomass harvested). Because six of the production systems under review are perennial systems, the profitability analysis is based on capital budgets.  These budgets track annual revenue and cost cash flows over a ten-year period. The capital budgeting approach used here is based on standard practice, but it omits costs that are invariant across experimental treatments, following the standard approach for enterprise budget analysis of agronomic experiments.