Small Farm Energy Primer

The National Center for Appropriate Technology and the New England Farm Institute republished the Small Farm Energy Primer in electronic format to share with a new generation of farmers. Funding was provided by the USDA Risk Management Agency.

FINAL REPORT SUMMARY
In October, 1976, the Center for Rural Affairs started the Small Farm Energy Project as a 3-year research and demonstration project. The Project was conducted on 48 cooperating, low-income farms in Cedar County, Nebraska.

Premise of the Energy Project
The expansion of farms by use of energy and energy-intensive technologies has dramatically altered the economic structure of American agriculture, resulting in diminished economic opportunity for rural people. The complexity and expense of energy-intensive farming make intimidating barriers to young couples trying to get a start in farming. Thus small family farmers are directly threatened by large-scale mechanization developed in an era of cheap energy.

Impicit in these conditions is an irony: the energy crisis is an economic opportunity for America's small family farmers. In response to the energy crisis, the small family farmer can make use of renewable enrgy resources, demonstrating that skills and resourcefulness, the human factor, is once again at a premium in agriculture.

Energy Saving Demonstrations
The Project's basic objective was to demonstrate the impact of proven energy-saving innovations and conservation techniques on the energy use, cost of production, and net incomes of small, low-income farmers. It measured the energy consumption and net farm income of two comparable groups that did and did not adopt energy-producing and energy-saving practices.

The Project involved only "appropriate-use" alternative energy innovations. Such innovations were:

- low-cost using locally available materials
- home-built making use of common farm skills
- easy to manage and maintain
- meeting constraints existing on the farm
- cost-effective

Key Project Findings
Farmers participating in the Energy Project kept detailed records on farm inputs, production, and sales.

- Energy consumption increased 24.5% in the study period; energy expenditures increased 62.6%.

- Energy use for farm production comprised 60% of the small farm's energy consumption; 40% for domestic use in space heating, electricity, and non-farm transportation.

- Cost-effective solar energy innovations that farmers built themselves were low-cost, easy to maintain, and applied to a variety of farm energy needs.

- In 1979, an average of $1138 in energy expenses per farm was saved by innovating farmers, compared to their couterparts - a reduction of 17% in 3 years. Nearly 70% of the savings resulted from adoption of energy-efficient farm practices using conventional farm technology, indicating the importance of energy conserving attitudes and farm practices, such as making better plans for trips to town, re-evaluating fertilizer purchases, and more frugal use of machinery.

Download the 60-page pdf of the original report: Small Farm Energy Primer