One of the state’s two remaining dairy farms has started growing its own feed to cope with soaring shipping costs.

Island Dairy in Hamakua, which has 500 cows, spends about $1.6 million a year buying feed from the mainland. Scott Tripp, the dairy’s manager, said the farm should be able to spend half as much by growing its own feed.

On Tuesday, the Hamakua farm harvested and bagged its first crop of corn. It’s currently growing corn on 50 acres, and hopes to expand that to 200 acres.

It has an additional 35 acres of sorghum, alfalfa and peanuts growing in experimental plots, but Tripp isn’t sure how much of those crops he’ll grow. It depends on what other feed sources – bakery leftovers or macadamia nut hulls – he can find.

“Whatever it takes. As long as it’s local,” he said. “I just don’t want to import anything. I want our cows to eat Hawaiian.”

The company aims to be able to supply milk to the entire state, something that would require Island Dairy to milk 1,200 cows. Tripp said that’s possible with pasture improvements, correct fencing, and water management.

Island Dairy invested in the feed growing operation with the help of state funds provided by a livestock revitalization bill. The legislation provided money to help farmers cope with the cost of feed.

The dairy qualified for $250,000 in reimbursements, the maximum allowed under the program, and the company used the money, along with an additional $1 million, to purchase equipment and supplies to grow its own feed.

It also spent money on farm improvements that will make it more efficient.

Feed costs for livestock producers in Hawaii can comprise up to 70 percent of the total production costs versus the close to 50 percent for mainland producers.

Surging fuel prices have boosted the cost of shipping feed. The cost of corn has also risen sharply due to increased demand for the product for use in ethanol.

Only one other farm in Hawaii has attempted to grow its own feed. A dairy on Oahu contracted in 2007 to have a distant neighbor grow corn. That was before the last Oahu dairy folded last year.

Clover Leaf Dairy in Upolu is the other remaining dairy operation in the islands. It has 800 cows, including 650 that produce milk.

Hawaii produced all of its own milk in the 1980s. Today the state imports roughly 82 percent of its milk.

The industry’s decline is due to feed, transportation, fuel and land costs, urban encroachment, limited agriculture land, biofuel production and stagnant sales, as well as drought and earthquake damage.

Credits: Forbes

No Comments »

Some Lanai residents are objecting to plans to build Hawaii’s largest wind farm on the island, an effort that could supply one-fifth of Oahu’s electricity demand.

The community is divided over the $750 million project, with supporters arguing for energy independence and opponents claiming it could cut public access to hunting and fishing.

The wind farm idea by David Murdock, a billionaire who owns 98 percent of the island and Castle & Cooke Inc., would build 125 turbines spread over 10,000 to 12,000 acres and then export power to Oahu via undersea cables.

”We’re prepared to fight him on this,” said retired state worker Ron McOmber, who has squabbled with Murdock before.

”They’re not going to let you go hunting in that area or go fishing in that area,” said Lanai Postmaster Bradford Oshiro.

”They’re going to lock it up.”

But Christopher Lovvorn, Castle & Cooke’s director of alternative energy, said fishers, hikers and beachgoers wouldn’t lose access to the area, and individual turbines won’t even be fenced in.

”Why don’t we all get together, do the same thing, make this island into something really spectacular?” Murdock asked at an Aug. 15 community meeting in the Lanai High and Elementary School cafeteria. ”I am trying to get us economic stability. You be my benefit, and I’ll be yours.”

Wind power would help expand Lanai’s economy primarily by giving Castle & Cooke a source of profit to help sustain other operations and investments on the island. Castle & Cooke employs more than a third of the 3,000 people who live on the island, many of whom back the wind project.

The wind farm itself would create only a few jobs, perhaps 15 to 20, Lovvorn estimates.

In addition, it wouldn’t necessarily reduce the cost of electricity for Lanai residents, who pay the highest rates in the state at about 55 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to the statewide average of about 30 cents per kilowatt hour.

Concerns about Murdock’s plans led 32 Lanai residents to sign a letter published in The Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 10 in which the author, Robin Kaye, questioned how the plan would affect access, the environment and island residents.

Murdock doesn’t need a vote of approval from residents to develop the wind farm, but opposition could derail his plans.

Environmentalist Jeff Mikulina, outgoing director of the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, said he supports Murdock’s general plan to supply power to Oahu with wind.

”This is an exciting project,” he said. ”We think Hawaii needs to be – and will be – the role model for the globe for (renewable energy).

“Lanai is certainly blessed with wind resources, and we should be tapping into that.”

The wind farm plan is still a long way off.

Castle & Cooke will need to evaluate whether financing, area wind speeds, environmental students and other factors will make the project feasible.

It could take five to seven years to obtain all necessary permits.

Credits: Maui News

No Comments »