Kent Madison, Echo

Besides being a third-generation farmer, Kent Madison of Umatilla-Morrow Farm Bureau is a compulsive number cruncher.

On a visit to his 17,500-acre operation in Echo to visit his biodiesel plant, when Madison wants to make a point about why he’s doing what he’s doing, he brandishes a pen and searches for a writable surface, a flap of a cardboard box will do. He rapidly completes a series of calculations to illustrate his point.

Madison exemplifies the truth that farmers need to be just as capable with their accounting ledgers as they are behind the wheel of a combine. And his latest plan to grow canola, sell its oil, and make his own fuel certainly looks good on paper…or, in this case, cardboard. The biodiesel plant became fully operational in 2006.

Madison insists that the production of biodiesel is “a very simple catalyst-type conversion.” After researching the basic steps online, he and one of his three sons made their first batch after mixing store-bought canola oil, drain cleaner, and a few other ingredients in a quart jar.

Seed stored in nearby large silos is air-blown through an underground tube into tanks within the processing facility. When the tanks are low, the computerized system automatically refills itself.

Even to a layperson, the oil-making-process sounds pretty straightforward, and, as Madison points out, “has been done for millions of years.” The canola seed is transported via a grain auger into two standard crushers. The resulting raw oil streams down a tin shaft into a tank.

After crushing, the liquid sits for a week or so to allow the virgin oil to rise to the top and separate from the less-pure material. Madison sells this higher-quality “de-gummed” oil to Sequential Biofuels’s biodiesel plant in Salem, the first refinery in Oregon. The lower-quality oil at the bottom is what Madison uses to make his own biodiesel.

The discarded black shells of the canola seed, called meal, are transported from the crushers into a trailer. When the trailer becomes full, it makes a trip to area dairies that purchase these high-protein leftovers for feed.

In 2006, the meal was worth about $145 a ton, and the raw oil was worth about $2.10 a gallon, together this increased the value of a ton of Madison’s canola by a whopping $119.

Madison estimates that after the extra materials are factored in, it costs him about $2.30 to make a gallon of biodiesel. Back years ago, when regular diesel cost about $1.50 a gallon, this effort wouldn’t have penciled out. But now that diesel costs so much more, it makes perfect sense.

“We burn 100,000 gallons of diesel a year,” he says. “And we’ll probably make about 50,000 gallons a year of biodiesel in the process of making about 350,000 gallons of good quality oil.”

“We’re paying less for our fuel and getting more money for our commodity,” says Madison. “The fact that it’s good for the environment is a bonus.”

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These are authentic stories from real farmers.  Any editorial content does not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Agri-Business Council of Oregon or our members.