Intact Harvester

These days it seems you can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without being confronted with yet another news item about the problem of climate change. Again and again we hear about how CO
The diagram above shows a machine that would replace the combine harvester and after swathing or spraying with roundup to reduce moisture content, harvest cereals intact i.e. harvest the grain and the straw. The straw and grain would be sent together to local processing plants where they would both be processed. The straw (which often contains almost the same amount of energy as the grain) would be used to make electricity or cellulosic ethenol. In the case of oilseed rape, the seed would be crushed for vegetable oil and the residue used to feed livestock. For cereals, the grain would be used for food and any further drying required would use waste heat from the burning of the straw instead of oil.

Thus the advantage of this machine would be a far higher energy balance than present, as shown below:

If cereals were harvested intact:
the amount of energy produced on every acre would almost double while at the same time the energy input required to harvest, dry and store the crop would be reduced
weed seed return would reduce as more of the seed would reach the local processing plants
millings (weed seeds plus small light or broken grains) would be used which studies in Canada has shown make a valuable animal feed.
there would be better utilisation of expensive machinery as the local processing plant would run all year around as opposed to hundreds of expensive combine harvesters that would only do seasonal work
So we would use less fossil fuels for higher energy output, thus partly addressing the issues of climate change and food production.

Peak Food