# Switchgrass Hay



## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

I'm a purchasing agent for Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. We are a nonprofit research company. We need to purchase 5 - 10 pounds of switchgrass hay for feedstock for an experiment we are conducting for our client. Does anyone have any idea where we can purchase this from?

Best regards,

Steve


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Five to ten POUNDS?? That's not even one square bale... Heck you can make that yourself... find some switchgrass, cut it with a weed eater, let it dry in the sun to the proper moisture level, rake it up in a bag, and presto you're there...

What sort of experiment only takes five to ten pounds?? (Lab test??)

Later! OL J R


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## prairie (Jun 20, 2008)

Sounds Spammy or Fishy to me.

I get these kinds of inquiries once in a while from the Contact page on my website.

But this one may be legit, they have a website http://www.swri.org/


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

I realize this does sounds strange. However, we are a legitimate company. We are one of the largest research and development companies in the United States. I realize we might have to order a whole bale. We do just need 10 pounds for our lab test. We can pay with check or Visa credit card.

While it is something that can be made luke strawwalker, we don't have the expertise, equipment, switchgrass down in San Antonio nor do we have the time to grow it, cut it, and dry it.

My engineer would prefer a 1-4 wt.% ash content and up to 30wt.% moisture content if available. If this isn't available, we will take whatever we can find that is closest to a "standard" or average sample. My email address is sevans @ swri dot org without any spaces. Our main number is (210) 684-5111. Feel free to call us.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

tbone421998 said:


> I realize this does sounds strange. However, we are a legitimate company. We are one of the largest research and development companies in the United States. I realize we might have to order a whole bale. We do just need 10 pounds for our lab test. We can pay with check or Visa credit card.
> 
> While it is something that can be made luke strawwalker, we don't have the expertise, equipment, switchgrass down in San Antonio nor do we have the time to grow it, cut it, and dry it.
> 
> My engineer would prefer a 1-4 wt.% ash content and up to 30wt.% moisture content if available. If this isn't available, we will take whatever we can find that is closest to a "standard" or average sample. My email address is sevans @ swri dot org without any spaces. Our main number is (210) 684-5111. Feel free to call us.


*facepalm*... Ya don't NEED equipment for 10 pounds of switchgrass hay... geez you could cut that much by hand with a pocketknife if you had to...

Your best bet is to look on craigslist or something... and yeah, you'll have to buy a WHOLE BALE (unless you're content to pick up a bag of duff and straw left on the floor of the barn or trailer once it's all been sold or moved out for the year... You'd probably get that for free...)

Geez... and I thought horse people were daft...

Later! OL J R


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

Folks, opportunity knocks, IF you have what the gentleman is looking for you could sell it to him by the ounce! He didn't say he was looking for something for free!

Think out side the bale!


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

Luke, I checked craigslist and couldn't find any switchgrass. Maybe you could provide me a source instead of insulting me.

DSLinc17 thanks for the reply. We are willing to pay for the hay. We just need to find some.


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## rajela (Feb 15, 2014)

Ol JR could maybe make a few bucks by brokering a bale of switchgrass hay!!!


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## bluefarmer (Oct 10, 2010)

Hey boys, he even give his phone number. Why beat him up like that, call and visit with him before you keep hammering on him. Who knows it might give someone a opportunity to make a little money down the road. I'd bust a bale and send him some if I had it.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Here are some big round bales that have some switchgrass in them (as per the offerer's claim). You may contact him and persuade him to pick some out and put it one of those USPS mailing boxes. Good luck with your experiment...I hope finding the hay or someone willing to part with it is the hardest part...it has to get easier from here on out!

https://semo.craigslist.org/grd/5394432326.html

73, Mark

Curiosity killed the cat...ethanol?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Heck, that fella takes M/C Visa Amex or a baldie ifn ya got it......

Seems there were some experiments conducted with switchgrass at the ABAC campus a few years back......perhaps to make fuel, idk.....


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

Thanks glasswrongsize, I appreciate the source. I've sent him an email and will wait and see what he comes back with.

We are working on using it to make a fuel.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

tbone421998 said:


> Thanks glasswrongsize, I appreciate the source. I've sent him an email and will wait and see what he comes back with.
> 
> We are working on using it to make a fuel.


Just for giggles, have ya checked out the ABAC research? It's perhaps 4-5 yrs old.....may be of some interest to you....


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## steve IN (Jan 13, 2010)

If I had one I would give it to him. This project may turn into a new forage market. Hopefully ethanol from biomass. Maybe that will get these corn kids under control.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

rajela said:


> Ol JR could maybe make a few bucks by brokering a bale of switchgrass hay!!!


Even if I sold him (1) 40 pound bale for $10 bucks it STILL wouldn't be worth my time and effort...

Even if he paid the shipping...

Any more than that would be gouging IMHO... and I don't play that way.

To the OP, sorry if it seems I'm "insulting" you, but honestly, your request is rather bizarre... You haven't said WHY it is SO important for you to obtain this small quantity of switchgrass hay for "testing" (testing for WHAT??)... Your numbers (especially the moisture) looks rather fishy to me, for our area at least (nobody is gonna have "hay" in these parts at 30% moisture... maybe some guys up north spraying it with a ton of acid or something to prevent it from spoiling, ie "haylage" (as in next of kin to SILAGE). You cannot go with "standard" numbers from "average" switchgrass hay produced by the Extension Service researchers?? Honestly that might be your best bet to get what you want... contact the Texas A&M Extension Service and ask to talk to a Forage Extension Specialist or researcher in the Forage lab... probably get your answers straight from the horse's mouth (so to speak) without all the rigamarole and runaround fishing for a "10 pound hay sample" around haytalk... If it's some "unique" test procedure for some highly secretive purpose that your investigating, they'd probably be your best bet for putting you onto a source as well... (BTW, most hay samples I've seen tested were nowhere NEAR "10 pounds"... more like cores cut from bales and sent to the forage lab for testing in a little baggy).

Anyway, here's hoping someone will happen to read this that is actually growing switchgrass "hay" who will hook you up. I don't grow switchgrass (or make hay from it) so I cannot help you. Here's something I recall that *might* be of assistance-- or not, as the case may be, but don't say I didn't try... I read that there's some sort of bio-gas plant they've built somewhere up around Waco or something in Central Texas that's using switchgrass hay as a feedstock... you might try to find them and contact them about obtaining a 'sample' for your purposes, or perhaps, as I said, get the numbers you need directly from their lab analysis of the hay they're buying for biogas production... (I remember reading about that with interest, because it'd be nice if we got a plant like that in range of our farms to make it an economical alternative to grow switchgrass to sell to them for biogas production, IF the cattle market were to head south or regulations grow too ridiculous and make cattle unprofitable... I've learned to always have a "plan B" in mind for the future, as uncertain as things are nowdays). Maybe they could give you some of their grower's phone numbers to call to see if they'd mail you a "sample"??

Wasn't trying to be snotty, but it's patently ridiculous to say you need 'equipment' to gather a ten pound sample... that was the point I was trying to make... I've gathered seed and cuttings MANY times for nursery plots with nothing more than a pocketknife and a Wally-World bag... no special equipment is needed to make 10 pounds of switchgrass hay... just some good green switchgrass, cut it with a knife by hand (or a weed eater if you want to be easier), rake it up by hand or with a lawn rake, and spread it out to dry a day or two in the sun til it's down to about 15% moisture, and then rake it up into a box or bag... VOILA! hay... it doesn't HAVE to be cut with a tractor and 10 foot mower, raked with a mechanical rake, and run through a baler to be HAY... (in fact many areas in Europe and even some Amish in this country STILL make "loose hay" using non-mechanized techniques like I mentioned above)...

Best of luck with whatever it is you're doing...

Later! OL J R


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

I sent a PM to you with some possible contacts for a small sample of switchgrass.

You may need to wait for switchgrass to break dormancy as it is a warm-season forage. Then it needs to grow for a length of time until it would be harvestable, especially since you want a specific moisture content. A possible source for this grass would be Texas A&M AgriLife Research with its network of Research and Extension Centers and its Soil and Crop Sciences Department, or the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation at Ardmore, Oklahoma.


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

vhaby, I appreciate the help you sent. I have gotten in contact with the Texas AgriLife Center.

Just to give a brief background, Southwest Research Institute is a non profit research and development firm. We have over 3000 employees and 1200 acres. We are set up like a college campus in that we have over 100 buildings. We have over 40 people just in our purchasing department. We have over 1500 projects going at any one time. Hence, purchasing usually has no idea what project we are purchasing items for. Nor what they will be used for. When we get a purchase requisition, we start sourcing it. This is the first time that I know of that we have ever tried to source hay much less switchgrass material for feedstock. I wouldn't know switchgrass from alfafa. I'm a city boy just looking for some help. My original post was requirements was taken directly from my engineer's purchase requisition. I'm not the engineer and I am just relaying her request.

I'm just a purchasing agent and I am not a farmer. After Googling Switchgrass Hay and not finding anything but this forum, I thought I would ask on this forum. I appreciate the members that have tried to help me. My engineer has also gone back to our client to see where they have gotten this in the past.

I thank you for your time and help on this thread.

Steve


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

steve IN said:


> If I had one I would give it to him. This project may turn into a new forage market. Hopefully ethanol from biomass. Maybe that will get these corn kids under control.


I would donate a fist full out of a bale as well if I had some as I am all for ethonal and renewable fuel. But no wonder he's getting resistance. Seems a lot on this form don't want a renewable fuel and rather force everyone to buy a product 100% big oil. I never knew so many farmers were against it, and I'm still not 100% sure why.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

tbone421998 said:


> I wouldn't know switchgrass from alfafa. I'm a city boy just looking for some help. My original post was requirements was taken directly from my engineer's purchase requisition. I'm not the engineer and I am just relaying her request.
> 
> I'm just a purchasing agent and I am not a farmer. After Googling Switchgrass Hay and not finding anything but this forum, I thought I would ask on this forum. I appreciate the members that have tried to help me.
> 
> Steve


Steve

Here's a some photo's of Switch grass I found on Google. I know where a field of Switch grass is that the owner has baled before. I'll try to contact them to see if he has a bale so I can get you a sample. I live 30 miles south of Ft Worth.

Jim


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

Thanks Jim, and I appreciate the pics.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Steve

I contacted the man that had the field with Switch grass leased that I knew about and he stated that the land owner plowed it up 3 or 4 yrs ago. Sorry! A friend of mine that hauls hay & equipment told me that he bought some Switch grass hay a few yrs back from fields located around Joe Pool Lake over by Dallas.

HTH's,Jim


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Sevans

If your address translated from sevans @ swri dot works, YOU HAVE MAIL

for the curius It is the Southwest Research Institute

n 2015, SwRI sponsored more than $7.2 million in internal research to develop innovative technologies that ultimately benefit clients.

They have been in business for a long time.


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

Thanks for the help and suggestions all. We do appreciate it.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I find one thing about this whole thread interesting. That they are studying how to make switchgrass into fuel. I thought that it was already known how to do that? I recall reading several years ago about switch grass as fuel rather then corn. In fact some of my hay buyers even had mentioned it to me. This was when everyone was building ethanol plants. I recall reading that switchgrass was superior to corn for fuel. And that there was a switchgrass plant in Illinois. Maybe I'm remembering wrong though. Since nothing came of this switchgrass for fuel thing I figured the various corn industries and associations had squashed it as a competitor. This comment isn't directed at Tbone421998, but just commenting on switchgrass in general.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I hauled a bunch of varities of "bales" to a outfit wanting to produce the same kinda thing. They were pretty close to me. Took them anything from premium alfalfa to various grasses, straw , corn fodder. Real nice guys . was really hoping it would take off but I never really heard from them again. I suppose the drop in fuel prices doesn't help with these kind of projects


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## tbone421998 (Feb 8, 2016)

I want to thank everyone who gave me useful information. We were able to find the switchgrass through our research partner University of Texas San Antonio.

I got permission to post what we are researching. We are using the switchgrass as a biomass feedstock to test a technology that we have requested a patent for. We are trying to turn the biomass into biofuels in a single step. Presently, biomass to biofuels technologies require several downstream processing steps to get to a specification grade blendstock. Additionally, the experimental data will be fed into a supply chain model to predict costs, revenue and best locations for biofuel processing plants.

Here's a link to the press release. I might need some help with this. http://www.swir.org/9what/releases/2015/utsa-connect.htm. If any of you are members of the American Society of Chemical Engineers, Ms. Madrano will be doing a presation for the 2016 AIChE spring conference which will have their preliminary data.

Steve


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