Farmer looks to biodiesel for solution

By Jana Cone

TIFTON April 30, 2007 10:19 pm

— Local farmer Terrell Roberson is continually fighting on three fronts to keep his 3,000-acre produce farm in the black: Rising fuel costs, a labor force to bring in the crops and the weather.
Farmers have always had to deal with the weather, but manmade problems with energy and labor have forced farmers like Roberson to find creative ways to problem solve. For that reason, Roberson was one of more than two dozen area farmers who signed up for the course on “The Basics of Biodiesel” held at the Tift County High School Agriculture Department Monday.
“I’m looking for ways to save on the cost of fuel,” Roberson said. “I’m curious. I want to go (to the class) and see if this is feasible.”
Roberson said he is using 1,000 gallons of fuel a day to run his farm. He has some 30 tractors and usually runs five or six at a time.
“I’d guess we are using 200 to 300 gallons of diesel a day just for the tractors,” he said. “The problem is, as of today, the diesel is costing me $2.27 per gallon.”
“Something has got to give,” Roberson said. “The price keeps going up. The farmers have to absorb those costs.” Roberson said each time the price of diesel goes up, it cuts a chunk out of his profit margin.
Roberson said area farmers have been trying to cut back on fuel costs by conserving fuel. One of the methods Roberson is using is called “strip till farming,” which he said cuts down on trips to the fields. Roberson explained with this method of farming, once a crop is harvested and the field is mowed down the farmer goes right back in the field and plants.
Roberson is hopeful the biodiesel course being taught by Jimmy Cargle will offer him some practical solutions. “He’s a down-to-earth fella — and a farmer himself — so I think we’ll be able to understand it,” Roberson said.
Besides the rising cost of diesel fuel, Roberson said everyone should be concerned with the environmental issues. “I’m not exactly a tree hugger,” Roberson said, “but global warming and what is happening with the ozone is a big topic. The ice is melting and there is grass now where there used to be snow.”
Questions Roberson has going into the class include: Will the biodiesel mix with the fuel I am already using? Could John Deere make a tractor that would use biodiesel? Can this be done with peanuts? Can I make biodiesel in quantities large enough to run my tractors?
Other than fuel costs, Roberson must also deal with issues surrounding the 100 Mexican field workers who harvest his crops under the H-2A program.
H-2A is the agricultural guest program in which agricultural employers recruit foreign workers on a temporary basis. The employer must comply with all federal and state labor related laws, pay a special minimum wage, furnish free housing that meets standards set by OSHA, provide workers’ compensation and reimburse the cost of transportation from their home country and back.
Roberson said his workers can stay in this country for 10 months and that he is paying them $8.51 an hour.
Roberson said he is constantly dealing with issues raised by Georgia Legal Services. “They have sued us three times,” he said. “I could understand it if they (the workers) were being mistreated or abused.”
“I have some of the same workers that have been coming here since 1989,” Roberson said.
He said in the past he has hired attorneys to deal with the issues, but now he is going into court without an attorney.
“We’re trying to do without the lawyers in defending ourselves,” Roberson said. The latest problem, he said, centered around the fact he filed the papers to get the workers two weeks later than he usually did.
Then there is the weather. “It has been so dry,” Roberson said.
Roberson’s father, Wendell, started the farm in the 1950s. Roberson is not likely to give up easily on the family business.
“Something has to happen,” Roberson said of the problems he faces running the family farm.
Right now he is looking to Jimmy Cargle and his biodiesel class to provide some answers.

To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.

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