Alternative fuels
Dad milked a few cows, when I was growing up. Most years we filled the silo with cut corn — chop the stalk just above the roots, chop up the whole thing into pieces a couple inches or smaller, ear of corn and all. Blow it into the top of the silo, let it fall into a tight pile, throw a cover over the top to keep birds out. And wait.
Wait for a couple of weeks. The fermenting corn mass produced methane. For Dad and I that is a deadly gas, but could we capture it today? Compress it, maybe run a generator, or stove, or furnace or tank heater? Farmers have been doing this for many years. The resulting silage has simplified sugars, the cows like it better, and kept from air the silage kept better.
More feed, and methane, too. Perhaps a return to upright silos, with a bit added to capture the methane, would pay off.
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