New England Farm Energy Conference
March 15-16, 2010
Radisson Hotel
Manchester, New Hampshire

Registration form coming soon; cost is $25 for one day or $50 for both days,per person, lunch included. Make payable to 'UVM Extension' at 206 S. Main St, St. Albans VT 05478.

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Mike Morris, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)

Mike Morris works with farmers, ranchers, and communities on more sustainable ways of using energy and water. He is especially interested in irrigation, solar energy, and small-scale biofuels. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh, and has taught at colleges and universities in Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, specializing in ethics, technology, and the environment. Mike's keynote address will focus on assessing on-farm energy options.

There will be Two Concurrent Tracks of Presentations over Two Days of the Conference.

I) Track 1: Oilseeeds and Biodiesel - details coming soon!

    * Oilseed agronomics
    * Equipment for oilseed production and seed handling
    * Biodiesel processing: quality and safety
    * Harvesting and storing oilseed crops
    * Modifying tractors and equipment for vegetable oil
    * Community-based biodiesel production

II) Track 2: Greenhouse Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Monday March 15

9:00-10:00    Assessing On Farm Energy Options (plenary session with Oilseed/Biodiesel Track)
        Mike Morris, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Durham NC

10:30-12:00    Principles of Energy Conservation in Greenhouses
        Chris Callahan, Callahan Engineering, Cambridge NY

        Conservation and Efficiency in River Berry Farm Greenhouse
        David Marchant, River Berry Farm, Fairfax VT

1:15-2:45    Growing Winter Greens Just With Solar Energy
        Joe Buley, Screamin’ Ridge Farm, Montpelier VT

        Compost as a Heat and CO2 Source for Greenhouses
         Bruce Fulford, City Soil and Greenhouse Company, Boston

3:15-4:30    Making the Most of Wood Heat in Greenhouses
        John Bartok, University of Connecticut

        Our Experience with Outdoor Wood Boilers for Greenhouse Heat
        Glenn Cook, Cider Hill Farm, Amesbury MA

        Sourcing and using wood: logs, chips, pellets
        Sarah Smith, Forestry Industry Specialist, UNH Cooperative Extension

Tuesday March 16

8:30-10:00    Our Experience with for Renewable Energy for Greenhouses
        Mike Collins, Old Athens Farm, Putney VT

        A Tour of Renewable Energy Heating Systems in Greenhouses
        Vern Grubinger, University of Vermont

10:30-12:00    Overview of Solar Photovoltaic and Hot Water Systems
        Mike Morris, NCAT

        Geothermal Heat for Greenhouses, Can it Pay?
        John Bartok, University of Connecticut

1:15-2:45    Waste Vegetable Oil for Winter Greenhouse Growing
        Ralph Turner, Laughing Stock Farm, Freeport ME

        A Small Scale Waste Vegetable Oil System for Greenhouse Heat
        Jeremy Barker-Plotkin, Simple Gifts Farm, MA

3:15-4:45    Overview of Shell Corn for Greenhouse Heat
        Andrew Cavanagh, University of Massachusetts

        Shell Corn for Greenhouse Heat at Ravenwold Farm
        Rich Adams, Ravenwold Farm , Florence, MA

       A Shell Corn Boiler for Ground and Air Heat in Greenhouse Tomatoes
       Gideon Porth, Atlas Farm, S. Deerfield MA

Descriptions of Speakers and Presentations.

Mike Morris leads the farm energy team at the ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, and cooks up many other projects at the National Center for Appropriate Technology. He has recently been conducting energy training for Extension agents from the South (described at www.entap.org), researching the cost and effectiveness of farm energy audits, and conducting "Energy Alternatives" workshops for farmers and rural communities in Montana, California, North Carolina, and other parts of the country.

Chris Callahan is a multi-disciplinary consulting engineer and principal of Callahan Engineering, PLLC, in Cambridge NY. The firm focuses on small-scale, sustainable power and waste engineering. Some of his recent work, supported by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, has been around on-farm biodiesel systems. He is also working with University of Vermont Extension to provide analysis and design on renewable energy systems for greenhouse growers. Chris will provide an overview of energy flows in greenhouses and areas for growers to focus on to save money.
 
David Marchant and his wife Jane Sorensen run River Berry Farm in Fairfax, VT, where they grow about 50 acres of wholesale organic vegetables and raise vegetable transplants, greenhouse tomatoes and ornamentals in about 10,000 sq feet of greenhouses. David will describe a variety of energy conservation measures they use in the greenhouses, including insulation of kneewalls, use of hot water bottom heat for seedling tray production, passive ventilation with ridge vents, tightening up louvers, and supplementing propane use with a wood pellet furnace.

Joe Buley is the owner of Screamin’ Ridge Farm in Montpelier, VT, where he has been growing vegetables and herbs year-round in two Steve Moore designed passive solar greenhouses for five years now. He is able to supply salad and spinach to local markets from November through the end of May. The greenhouses are then used for summer crops such as tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and cucumbers. His two 30 x 100 greenhouses, oriented on an east-west axis, do not have any supplemental heat source but instead rely on solar gain and thermal mass retention with the use of raised beds and interior row covers.

Bruce Fulford has worked for more than 30 years integrating sustainable energy, agriculture and nutrient conservation systems as a researcher, grower, landscape professional and  consultant.   He will discuss how the composting process can be used to generate significant quantities of heat, CO2 and water vapor that can be captured and used productively in greenhouse operations, and why it has had limited application to date. This presentation provides an overview of the state of the art and references current projects that include biothermal heating and CO2 enrichment of greenhouses.

John Bartok is an agricultural engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut. He is known as the ‘guru of greenhouse engineering’ after decades of helping growers design systems and solve problems related to every aspect of greenhouse construction and operation. He has authored many fact sheets on greenhouse engineering and renewable energy use, available on line at:
www.umass.edu/umext/floriculture/fact_sheets/greenhouse_management.html. John will review how geothermal systems work and their application to greenhouse operations, and he will also discuss the principles of wood combustion for greenhouse heating, different systems that use wood, and how to make the most of that fuel.

Glenn and Karen Cook run Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury MA, growing fruits and vegetables on 145 acres, as well as tomatoes in nine 19x100 greenhouses. They have been leaders in adoption of renewable energy systems, from wind turbines to solar power. Recently they installed 2 outdoor wood boilers to provide heat for the greenhouses, as well as a wood boiler for the main house on the farm. Glenn will describe this system, its pros, cons, costs, and payback.

Sarah Smith is the Forest Industry Specialist for UNH Cooperative Extension. She provides information and educational programming to the state's sawmills, loggers and greater forest-based business community. She also updates the forestry community on current forest industry market conditions as well as many other logs to lumber topics.

Mike Collins and his wife Rebecca Nixon run the Old Athens Farm in Westminster, Vermont.  They are dedicated to growing the highest quality organic produce for the local market, with a focus on early season greenhouse crops, primarily tomatoes and cucumbers.  Mike will talk about their efforts over the years to making the farm as sustainable as possible.  They heat their three greenhouses with wood as well as waste vegetable oil gleaned from local sources.  They also burn some propane in the starter house but this year the farm is planning to install a large solar hot water system to supplement that heat source.

Jeremy Barker Plotkin manages 15 acres of vegetables for a 400 member CSA in Amherst MA. He  has one heated greenhouse and several high tunnels. The 30 by 72 ft greenhouse has been heated with waste vegetable oil (from restaurants and a waste oil supplier) for the past three years. The greenhouse is used for winter greens production, spring transplant production, and hot season crops in the summer. He will describe the challenges he's faced -- in hopes that others could avoid them -- and some of the solutions he's figured out for using waste oil.

Vern Grubinger is the vegetable and berry specialist with University of Vermont Extension. He has been working with greenhouse growers seeking to adopt alternative energy for heat, and has written up case studies of a variety of systems, available at:  http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/CaseStudies.html. He will present a slide tour of a variety of renewable energy systems that have been installed in New England greenhouses, with information on pros, cons and costs.

Rich Adams runs Ravenwold Farm, in Florence, MA. It has been a family farm since the early 1900's. It was originally primarily a dairy farm, but they made the switch to vegetables and bedding plants in 1993. They now focus primarily on bedding plants and vegetable starts, and hanging baskets, as well as growing about 30 acres of vegetables and sweet corn.  Rich Adams will share his experiences in installing and maintaining a 160,000 btu corn furnace using a specialized Corn-Trol thermostat.

Gideon Porth and his wife Sara run Atlas Farm, a small family farm in South Deerfield, MA. They grow a wide diversity of certified organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers, with many gourmet, heirloom and specialty varieties in addition to all the standard varieties. The owners have been working in agriculture since 1996 and share a deep commitment to sustainable farming.  Gideon will present his experience installing and running a corn-fueled hydronic heating system that provides root zone heat for his greenhouse tomatoes.

Hosted by:
Cooperative Extension of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont; and the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.