Nine commodities dominate Minnesota’s agricultural output and, by extension, the state’s agricultural energy use. This article reports on the amount and type of fuel each commodity group uses to produce, transport, and process the state’s agricultural bounty.

No direct measures of farm, transportation, or processor energy consumption exists, so we conducted a series of calculations to form the necessary estimates. Published farm budget data on direct energy-related expenditures were allocated to various fuel types and physical input units were estimated on a per acre, per head, or hundredweight basis. Statewide values were calculated by applying these averages to overall crop and livestock production levels.

Energy-consumption data in the transportation and processing sectors are even more limited, so our analysis relied on industry experts and published sources before applying these to the various commodity flows.

Estimated Energy Use in Minnesota Agriculture

Farm

Transportation and Processors

Corn

Minnesota is the nation’s fourth-largest corn producing state, with 6.7 million acres planted in 1995, the year of our analysis. At the farm level, corn is also the largest user of diesel, gasoline, and LP gas, and it requires the second highest usage of electricity. Corn requires the most diesel for transportation but a relatively small amount of energy is used in processing.

Field operations—from tillage, to planting and harvesting—consumed 9.4 gallons of diesel fuel per acre, plus another 1.1 gallons of gasoline.

Most of the corn crop needs post-harvest drying. Although the amount of moisture removed varies from year to year, producers used 9.6 gallons of LP gas per acre for drying in 1995. Finally, growers used an average 35.6 kWh (kilowatt-hours) per acre to produce the crop.

While these farm-level amounts of energy are relatively modest considering the amount of corn produced, aggregate statewide consumption still amounted to 63 million gallons of diesel fuel, 64 million gallons of LP gas, 235 million kWh of electricity, and 8 million gallons of gasoline.

Of the total crop, about 100 million bushels are processed into corn sweeteners and ethanol, 300 million are fed to livestock in the state, and the remainder (over 300 million bushels in 1995) is exported out of state. The diesel fuel needed to transport the 1995 crop, either within the state or to the state border, totaled 10.8 million gallons.

Of the 100 million bushels of corn processed within the state, about 70 percent goes to produce ethanol, while the rest is wet-milled into corn sweeteners, starches, and some additional ethanol. For every 100 bushels of corn used in ethanol production, 25 kWh of electricity and 1.6 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) of natural gas are required. Wet-milling requires 2.5 Mcf of natural gas and 100 kWh of electricity per 100 bushels. The combined energy demand for corn processing totaled 1.9 million Mcf of natural gas and 47.5 million kWh of electricity.

Soybeans

Minnesota’s 1995 soybean crop totaled 235 million bushels and ranked third among the states. Soybean production in Minnesota represented the second-highest usage of diesel and gasoline at the farm level. Field operations required 7.4 gallons of diesel fuel per acre and 0.9 gallon of gasoline. In addition, 27.5 kWh of electricity and only 0.75 gallon of LP gas were needed because soybeans typically do not require drying. Statewide there were 5.8 million acres planted in soybeans, which required a total of 43.8 million gallons of diesel fuel to cultivate and harvest.

Soybean processors are the largest agricultural users of electricity in the state and the second largest of natural gas. Soybeans generally are processed near the animals that will eventually consume the soybean meal. Roughly half the state’s soybean crop is crushed in Minnesota, while the other half is exported from the state. The amount of diesel fuel used for moving soybeans to the processor or state border totaled 6.1 million gallons. In addition, soybean processing plants use physical and chemical methods to separate the crude soy oil and soybean meal from the raw, unprocessed beans. The initial separation of meal and oil, plus refining the oil into a stable product, requires 4.2 Mcf of natural gas and 167 kWh of electricity for every 100 bushels processed. Processing half of the 1995 soybean crop required 4.9 million Mcf of natural gas and 196 million kWh of electricity.

Wheat

Minnesota is the number three wheat producing state in the U.S. In 1995, 2.25 million acres were planted, resulting in a crop worth $331 million. Farm-level fuel use averaged 7.2 gallons of diesel per acre, 0.9 gallon of gasoline, 0.8 gallon of LP gas, and 30 kWh of electricity.

Total statewide production of wheat was considerably less than soybeans, simply because fewer acres of wheat were planted. In total, wheat growers used 16.3 million gallons of diesel fuel, 2.0 million gallons of gasoline, 1.8 million gallons of LP gas, and 67 million kWh of electricity.

In 1995, moving wheat to milling facilities required 4.9 million gallons of diesel fuel. The milling process includes grain cleaning, grinding, sifting for size and density, material handling, and packaging. In flour production, the largest single operating expense is the cost of electricity used to run the motors that power the grain conveyors and roller mills. Each bushel of wheat turned into flour requires 1.74 kWh.

The total amount of electricity needed to process Minnesota’s 71.8-million-bushel harvest of wheat exceeds 125 million kWh, which makes wheat milling the third highest user of electricity in the state, behind milk and soybean processing.

Dairy

Minnesota dairy farms produced 9.41 billion pounds of milk in 1995, which makes Minnesota the number five dairy state in the nation. The state ranks third in milk used for making manufactured products such as butter and American cheese.

Electricity is the largest single energy expense for dairy operators. At the farm level, dairy farmers used 376 million kWh of electricity, or 600 kWh per year for a typical cow producing 15,000 pounds of milk annually.

The total diesel fuel requirements to transport raw milk to a bottling plant are estimated at 9.4 million gallons. This is the second largest transportation use among Minnesota farm commodities; it is due to the many trips that bulk-milk trucks make at less than full capacity.

Of the milk produced on Minnesota farms, 51 percent is made into cheese, 35 percent is dried, and 14 percent is used as liquid for bottling. Milk processors use energy to pump, pasteurize, homogenize, dry, package, and sanitize milk and milk products.

The dairy industry is the largest user of natural gas and the second highest user of electricity among agricultural processors in the state. Drying milk requires 0.16 Mcf of natural gas and 2.57 kWh of electricity per (raw) hundred pounds of milk. Thus, milk that is dried requires four times as much natural gas and nearly twice the electricity consumption of milk used for cheese making. In contrast, bottling milk requires just 20 percent of the natural gas and 25 percent of the electricity used for making cheese.

In summary, processing the 9.5 billion pounds of milk produced statewide into dried-milk products, cheese, and bottled milk requires 7.3 million Mcf of natural gas and 161.8 million kWh of electricity.

Swine

In the swine industry, production at the farm level can be divided into farrowing (breeding and raising young pigs up to 25–40 pounds) and finishing (fattening hogs for slaughter at about 240 pounds). While some operators specialize in one or the other, many take the animals all the way from farrow to finish. Combining these two stages, swine production requires the third-largest amount of electricity at the farm level.

Minnesota is the number three swine producer in the U.S. Hogs and pigs totaled 4.85 million head at the start of 1995 and over 2 billion pounds of live hogs were slaughtered. Annual farrowings totaled one million litters in 1995 with an average litter size of 8.6 weaned pigs.

Young pigs must be maintained in a comfortable environment, which translates into heating and ventilation costs. Electricity is the largest single energy expense here; one litter of farrowed pigs requires about a quarter of the electricity required for one dairy cow. About half of the pigs farrowed are shipped to another facility for finishing, which uses nearly half-a-million gallons of diesel fuel per year. Transporting the state’s 7.0 million finished hogs to market requires another 1.41 million gallons of diesel.

Slaughtering livestock is a rather standard process with common features regardless of the animal being butchered. The hide or feathers, entrails, and blood are removed, and the carcasses chilled. All species require automated equipment, conveyors, and coolers. Steam heat is often used in cleanup tasks. The two principal energy sources in all kill facilities are electricity and natural gas. In 1995, Minnesota’s production of slaughtered hogs totaled 2.0 billion pounds and required 740,000 Mcf of natural gas and more than 74.8 million kWh of electricity to process.

Beef

Cattle enterprises can also be characterized by stages in the animal’s life cycle. Some operators specialize in raising calves up to about 500 pounds. Other operators feed these fattened calves to a market weight of 1,100 pounds.

Minnesota had 420,000 calves and 530,000 cattle at the start of 1995. During the year 1.5 billion pounds of live cattle were sent to slaughter. Diesel fuel accounts for the largest energy costs, estimated at 124,320 gallons of diesel fuel for shipping calves and 530,000 gallons of diesel for shipping finished steers to market.

By applying the energy factors described above for swine to beef slaughter, we estimated that processors use 543,900 Mcf of natural gas and 55.0 million kWh of electricity.

Turkeys

Minnesota is the number two turkey producer in the U.S., with production that totaled 40 million head in 1995. This translates into 854 million pounds of live birds. Turkeys are typically hatched in specialized facilities, then transported to brooder facilities.

Chicks are kept at 100 degrees F for their first week of life. Barn temperatures are gradually lowered as the birds gain feathers during their first five to six weeks of life, at which point they are generally moved into grower barns.

In barns, ventilation requirements are often handled by computer-controlled doors, windows, and eave vents that permit natural venilation—especially in grower barns. Alternatively, a smaller (and declining) number of growers feed turkeys seasonally “on the range” where the turkeys are given minimal shelter and fed in large fields.

LP gas is the dominant fuel used to heat turkey brooder barns and grower barns, which makes turkey production the second largest user of LP gas at the farm level after corn drying. Using a year-round factor of 0.023 gallon of LP gas per pound of turkey produced, 0.5 gallon of LP gas is used to produce a turkey with a statewide average slaughter weight of 21.8 pounds. Electricity requirements for raising turkeys were 1.24 kWh per head, which is comparable to swine after adjusting for the smaller size of a turkey. Diesel fuel requirements were 0.091 gallon per head and gasoline usage was 0.011 gallon per head.

When turkeys are ready for market they are hauled by semitrailers, which require 0.0115 gallon of diesel fuel per bird. Thus, the total energy required to transport turkeys in Minnesota is 467,107 gallons of diesel fuel.

Most turkeys raised in Minnesota are slaughtered here, too. National figures for the energy requirements of slaughter per bird are 0.9 kWh of electricity and 0.009 Mcf natural gas. This provides us with an estimate of total turkey processing energy needs of 360,000 Mcf of natural gas and 36.4 million kWh of electricity.

Sugar Beets

The sugar beet crop totaled 7.43 million tons produced on 427,000 acres. Diesel fuel usage was 28.9 gallons per acre at the farm level. From remote storage sites to processing plants, transportation charges accrue to processors for hauling beets. Transportation requires about 4.9 million gallons of diesel fuel.

At a sugar beet processing facility, pulverized coke and ground limestone are placed in kilns to produce carbon dioxide and milk of lime, which is then used to purify the sugar beet juice. In most plants, bituminous coal is used to produce steam in the boilers and to produce some of the electricity used by the plant; the remainder is purchased from the local grid. Natural gas is used for some of these heating processes.

Processing the total Minnesota sugar beet crop requires 440,366 tons of coal, 4.43 million Mcf of natural gas, and 68.36 million kWh of electricity.

Sweet Corn and Green Peas Used for Processing

Minnesota ranks number one nationally in sweet corn and green peas grown for canning and freezing. In 1995, these crops had combined farm marketing receipts of $81 million. Sweet corn was grown on 134,000 acres and peas on 92,900 acres. Sweet corn requires about 1.19 million gallons of diesel fuel to transport from field to processor and green peas 382,000 gallons.

Natural gas is used to produce steam in canning plants and electricity is used to run conveyors and pumps—as well as to run freezing units. Making steam requires 143,738 Mcf of natural gas and more than 15 million kWh of electricity.

The total energy requirement for processing corn and peas amounts to 278,000 Mcf of natural gas and 29 million kWh of electricity.

Summary

Nearly all activities supporting farm production and commodity processing in the state require energy. This article reports the amount of energy used in the production, transportation, and processing of the state’s 1995 agricultural output. The totals are estimated at 241 million gallons of diesel fuel, 24 million gallons of gasoline, 123 million gallons of LP gas, 23 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 2.27 billion kWh of electricity.

Compared to total statewide energy consumption, farm-to-processor agriculture uses 30 percent of all LP gas, 21 percent of all diesel fuel, 4 percent of all electricity, 6.5 percent of all natural gas, and 1 percent of all the state’s gasoline.