Sterling?s ethanol factory first of 3 to break ground

STERLING ? The trucks are moving in Sterling.
Colorado?s first ethanol plant is under construction, while two more are waiting in the wings for final approval.
Colorado Agri Products is building a 42-million-gallon-per-year plant, which will operate as Sterling Ethanol when it is completed in October. Construction of the plant is expected to cost $50 million.
?We broke ground a couple of weeks ago,? said Dave Kramer, president of Colorado Agri Products. ?We are working out of a temporary office out here ? The dirt is definitely moving.?
Kramer?s project is backed by a group of 24 investors, which includes local feedlots, farmers and businessmen. The plant will begin contracting for corn in July and is hoping to process high-fermentable hybrid corn produced by Monsanto.
Sterling Ethanol will also begin hiring its 32 employees in March. Kramer said the company would begin accepting applications at that time, but probably won?t hire a majority of its employees until August.
?We will do one month of training out in Kansas in September to get ready to open,? he said.
The precise location for a second ethanol plant, this one proposed by Front Range Energy, isn?t settled. But the company is looking for a general manager with a starting salary of $100,000 for the project, which is planned for the Windsor area. The company intends to build a 40-million-gallon-per-year dry mill ethanol plant in eastern Windsor.
?The plant is on the verge of being finalized ? we are really focusing on Windsor,? said Dan Sanders, president of Front Range Energy. ?We will build a plant somewhere in Weld County sooner or later.?
Sanders said once the plant is completely through the planning process, groundbreaking can begin quickly. He said he was optimistically predicting a ground breaking within a few weeks.
Construction should last eight months, with the plant opening before the end of the year. Construction of the plant is expected to cost $54 million.
The first ethanol plant announced last year might be the last one to open. Great Western Ethanol, which released its plans in March 2004 to open a 56-million-gallon-per-year plant, hopes to be open in March 2006.
?We should be breaking ground in March, but I am going to be careful what I say,? said Jim Geist, spokesman for Great Western Ethanol.
Great Western will begin contracting for corn this growing season to build up reserves in its 1.4-million-bushel-capacity grain elevator.
The plant is expected to employ 50 people, and construction costs are expected to be $84 million. The three plants are expected to produce a combined 138 million gallons of ethanol per year and will require 49.2 million bushels of corn.
According to BBI International in Cotopaxi, every bushel of corn turned into ethanol provides an additional $6.50 worth of value-added products. Corn producers benefit from the increased demand for their corn. Area residents also benefit from the jobs that are created ? about 100 during the construction phase, plus 30 to 35 full-time positions when the plant is in operation.

Farm Bureau honored
The Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado Farm Bureau were recognized by the U.S. Department of Interior for their joint work to protect the mountain plover and conserve its habitat.
Cooperative efforts between the DNR, the CFB, private landowners, and other groups have included nest clearings and research on cultivated croplands, where the birds spend most of their breeding season.
Colorado Farm Bureau president Alan Foutz said the award belongs to the many farmers and ranchers who see the value in protecting their land, water and wildlife resources.
Foutz said the approach of a voluntary, incentive-based, species-recovery program proved to be highly effective in gaining farmer and rancher support, as well as meeting the objectives of the endangered species conservation programs.
In 2002, the DNR, the CFB, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey formed a partnership to look at mountain plover nesting in agricultural areas in eastern Colorado, after the species was proposed for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Farm Bureau joined with private landowners to open up 300,000 acres of land for data collection and research on the population status of the plover, as well as the nest habitats.
The mountain plover is a grassland bird species that adapted to following the herds of bison that roamed the Great Plains. The mountain plover winters in California?s fertile agricultural valleys and breed primarily in eastern Colorado, as well as in Park County. The bird is known to exist from southern Alberta to Mexico.

Kim Lock is the agribusiness reporter for the Northern Colorado Business Report. To suggest a column feature, contact her at (970) 221-5400 or (970) 356-1683, ext. 222, or by e-mail at klock@ncbr.com.

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