Earlier this year I wrote a lot of fact sheets about various aspects of biomass for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Those fact sheets are now online: you can drill down from the main page.
The largest section of what I wrote dealt with agricultural residue. Here’s what’s on that page, with links leading to more detailed information:
Agriculture ResidueCereal Straw
Cereal straw is the dry stalk of a cereal plant, left behind in the field after the grain or seed has been removed during combining. It is the most abundant of all agricultural residues in Canada for one simple reason: of the approximately 36.4 million hectares of available cropland, more than 85 percent, or about 32 million hectares, are found in the three prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and in those provinces, cereal crops predominate.Corn Stover
Corn stover is what remains on the field after corn has been harvested. It consists of approximately 50 percent stalks, 22 percent leaves, 15 percent cob, and 13 percent husk. The crown and its surface roots are not considered part of the stover.Flax Straw
Flax straw is the fibrous stalk of a flax plant, left behind in the field after the flax seeds have been removed during combining. Unlike the straw of other crops commonly grown on the prairie, flax straw has a long history of being utilized, primarily for the strong fibers it contains. The ancient Egyptians produced fabrics from flax and wrapped their mummies in linen cloth.
This is the kind of thing I write when I’m not primarily concerned with the lives and deaths of far-future genetically modified fish-people. Just thought you’d like to know. (Although, oddly enough, some people have referred to my stories about far-future genetically modified fish-people as a type of agricultural residue, so maybe there’s more unity to my career than I’d previously recognized.)
