# Presentation: 045947

## Hybrid Poplar Production Costs and Yield Measurement in Alexandria, MN: A Summary of Real Economic Costs of Production and Real Growth on 1500 acres

**Mark Downing, Amy Shogren, Ernie Schmitt, Dean Schmidt, and Steve Taff**
**Oak Ridge National Laboratory. WesMin RC&D, MN DNR-Forestry, University of Minnesota**
** ****September 2001**

## Goals of the Project

**To collect production costs from a complete rotation of hybrid poplar on CRP land**
**To collect yield data from these sites through rotation**
**To combine production data and the yield growth for determining the feasibility for an individual landowner to produce hybrid poplar on their land for profit**
**Determine if infrastructure is available or capable to gear up and increase capacity to supply material and labor needed**

## Basic Project Information

**1500+ acres**
**16 landowners**
**5 clones planted**
**Sites ranging from 10 to 300 acres**
**Sites planted in 1994 and 1995; some replanting continued in 1995 and 1996**
**Expected rotation at outset was 10 years**

## Collecting costs of production

**Data include all site preparation costs; all field operations from planting, mechanical and chemical weed control, to harvesting**
**Costs collected on a site-by-site basis from 10 to 300 acre sites**
**Eventual complete data will include harvesting scenarios**

## Collecting yield data

**Permanent sample data plots constructed on each site**
**Plots include range of soils and clones**
**Ten 30-tree plots established on most sites (some sites have fewer plots)**
**Height and diameter of each tree with a plot is measured yearly**
**680 trees per acre with no assumption on survival per each plot**

## Sample data from a 300-acre site

## Sample data from a 100-acre site

## Results and Discussion

**Data represent 1500 acres of nearly 10,000 acres of hybrid poplar on CRP in MN**
**Currently existing infrastructure was able to accommodate this project**
**These data do not imply any correlation of cost with yield**

**Notes:**
Scale has influenced where we do research and how we do research. Our approach has been one of using a given amount of time and money to laying the foundation for a large building, compared to completing an entire, but significantly smaller structure.

Partnerships focus began at earliest stage in program, in choice of ORNL and decision not to recreate USDA research capabilities, but to work with USDA research units and land grant universities. 

## Results and Discussion

**High degree of variability exists across landowners**
**Soils**
**Site preparation**
**Field conditions**
**Final data on cost and yield will result in recommendations for future management of hybrid poplar**
**Harvest decisions will be made by individual landowners but data will be collected**

**Notes:**
Scale has influenced where we do research and how we do research. Our approach has been one of using a given amount of time and money to laying the foundation for a large building, compared to completing an entire, but significantly smaller structure.

Partnerships focus began at earliest stage in program, in choice of ORNL and decision not to recreate USDA research capabilities, but to work with USDA research units and land grant universities.