[AT] quiet list(wheat prices)

[Greg Hass]

I also attended the National Machinery Show Friday.  (More on that later.) 
While I was looking at the display for Drill Bit City (we have bought drill 
bits from them in the past), I noticed the display for the pellet-making 
machine.  I remembered Farmer mentioning he was going to see one, but I did 
not know until tonight that it was the same one he had mentioned.  I started 
burning corn this year, but am keenly interested in things such as these 
pellet-making machines, and I spent 20 minutes or so talking to the vendor 
about them.  I came away feeling a little discouraged about whta I found 
out.  I do believe his machines are extremely rugged.  However, if I 
understood him correctly, (and I think I did) he said they did not work that 
great for wood pellets.  he also said that commercial wood-pelleters run at 
higher pressures using 50 hp or larger electric motors.  His only uses 
single phase motors.  He talked more of making pellets out of things like 
alfalfa, cornstalks, certain types of grasses, etc.  He also said that all 
of the material they put in the pellet maker was first run through a 
hammermill with a very fine screen, all of which seems to me like it would 
take a lot of power.  As I said, I'd hoped it would do good with wood, but 
he did not make it sound that way.  Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, 
it is just what I understood the vendor to say.

On a side note, I talked to a cousin of mine a couple of days ago who used 
to get several semi-trailer loads of sawdust a year to use as cattle 
bedding.  He said he is no longer able to get it, as it is being bought up 
by the wood-pelleting businesses.

Greg Hass
Michigan's Thumb