Shiitake Farm

We are building a new model for the small family farm. The farm will be used to help educate the world about the viability of local food and fuel production.

The farm will operate on permaculture principles and include a small ethanol production plant, a hydroponic greenhouse, fish ponds and a facility to grow shiitake mushrooms.

The small scale ethanol plant will initially operate on purchased grain (until we have a cattail sewage treatment system in place) and the heat energy needed to run the distillery will come from methane produced on the farm.

The distillery model will produce 180-190 proof alcohol at 16 gallons per hour. The alcohol will be dried to 196-200 proof in a water extraction system.

Initially, the plant will produce a little more than 9,000 gallons of 196-200 proof alcohol per year. We will sell this ethanol and pass the federal tax VEETC (Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit) of 51 cents per gallon on to the drivers. We’ll keep the producer’s tax credit of 10 cents per gallon. This will generate a gross income on ethanol sales of around $22,500 per year (at current market prices).

We will use the by-products of ethanol production to maximize the productivity and profitability of our farm. The ethanol plant will produce 33 tons of wet distiller’s grains (WDG), and another three tons of nutrients, a.k.a. distiller’s solubles (DS). The plant will also produce 50 tons of carbon dioxide. We could sell the CO₂ for greenhouse use at $5,000-$8,000, but instead it will be pumped into our own greenhouse where we will grow high-value organic salad mix, tomatoes, cucumbers and a variety of densely planted complementary crops. It will be simple to produce organic vegetable yields of three pounds per square foot, per plant cycle. So in three standard greenhouses, we can expect the annual yield to easily be 65,000 pounds.

At prices of $2 to $4 per pound, we can expect $120,000 to $240,000 of organic vegetable sales.

The plant will use the three tons of DS and the 33 tons of WDG in mushroom, earthworm and fish-raising operations. We will divide our annual production of 33 tons dry weight of the WDG into three 11 ton parts. The first third of the WDG will be mixed with stover and used as a substrate to grow oyster and shiitake mushrooms. The 22 tons of mushroom substrate (combined stover & WDG) will yield about 22 tons of fresh mushrooms annually. At a price of $2.50 per pound (very conservative wholesale price), the gross income on mushroom sales will be $110,000.

The second 11 tons of the WDG, along with the mushrooms not meeting the cosmetic standards of the market, and about 5.5 tons of the mushroom substrate will be fed to fish. This 16.5 tons of fish food will yield about 20,000 pounds of tilapia. About 45% of fish sales will be sold as food (9000 pounds of the full-size male fish). If sold on the local market, we can reasonably expect to get $7 to $10 per pound. With 4.5 tons of fish, the live fish income stream will gross $63,000 to $90,000 per year.

The other 55% of the tilapia will be 11,000 pounds of females and smaller males, which currently don’t have a market. They will be converted to 10,000 gallons of fish emulsion. This would be worth $120,000 if sold in five-gallon pails. If sold in one-gallon bottles at $17.50 each, the fish emulsion would be worth $175,000. If sold in quarts at $6.95 each, the fish emulsion would be worth $278,000.

The last 11 tons of the WDG and the last 5.5 tons of mushroom substrate will be fed to earthworms for the production of worm castings (worm poop). The 11 tons of the WDG and 5.5 tons of mushroom substrate will convert to about 33 tons of worm castings, worth $66,000 to $125,000.

So we can now see that our total gross income will be no less than $484,000 per year. If we assume that non-labor costs of production and marketing are 25% of the gross. That’s $363,000 available for labor and profit.

Remember, this is a small farm with a simple design and will be operated by 2 or 3 people. A more complex design would add more layers of production and income streams. But even with this design, the opportunity is very attractive.