Cal Hoff has been a farmer for more than 20 years, working with cattle feeding, feedlots, dairies and, most recently, corn.

Come Nov. 15, the corn Hoff grows in his Richardton farm will be worth quite a lot to his new neighbor.

Red Trail Energy Inc. is on schedule to open North Dakota's newest ethanol plant, a 50 million-gallon-a-year processing facility that plans on using nearly 18 million bushels of corn.

"We'll buy as much from North Dakota as possible, and the rest from the corn belt,"said Mick Miller, plant manager.

Studies have shown ethanol plants can generate up to 400 jobs in the area, directly and indirectly, said Ambrose Hoff, president of the North Dakota Corn Growers. Richardton residents researched the local benefits of an ethanol plant -such as job generation, corn crop benefits and the cost-effectiveness of getting feed for their cattle -and moved forward with securing the plant near their town.

"If we don't save our small town, nobody else is going to do it for us,"Hoff said. "The effort is to bring good, clean industry to the area."

Good, clean industry is right:Renewable fuel production such as biodiesel and ethanol creates a better market for crops, drops prices of feed and creates jobs, advocates say.

That puts farmers like Hoff in an advantageous position, as renewable energy and value-added agriculture stake a cooperative claim in North Dakota.

Red Trail Energy is scheduled to start grinding on Nov. 15, and another plant, Blue Flint Ethanol, is scheduled to open Jan. 9, 2007. Their total capacity adds 100 million gallons of ethanol a year to North Dakota's ethanol production.

The two will use more than 32 million bushels of corn a year, added to the 14 million bushels of corn the two current ethanol plants use a year, according to the North Dakota Corn Growers.

On top of that, at least three other plans to build ethanol plants in North Dakota have been announced in the past few months.

While not all of the corn for all of the plants will come from North Dakota, managers at both plants in construction say they'll buy as much corn from the state as possible.

"Anytime that farmers have more options for planting, and a reliable market for their crops, it's good for agriculture,"said Shane Goettle, commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Commerce. "It provides a stabilizing force for our farmers, and for planting intentions. It makes their lenders more comfortable."

Goettle said he's already hearing evidence that corn production in the state will increase to keep up with demand, adding that the best corn for the ethanol plants is grown locally, which cuts back on transportation costs.

Travis Strickland, plant manager for Blue Flint Ethanol, agreed.

"We're going to try to get as much as we possibly can (from the state). Most of the corn we bring in will be from the southeast part of the state,"Strickland said. "A lot of the benefit as far as the plant goes is it should be lower-cost transportation."

Another impact on agriculture from local ethanol plants:by-products.

The by-products produced from the Blue Flint plant are enough to feed 225,000 head of cattle, Goettle said. And getting feed locally cuts down on shipping costs.

"That bodes well for our livestock industry, too,"Goettle said. "The opportunity isn't just for our growers."

The next big value-added crop build-up could also be in canola and soybeans, Goettle said, with two biodiesel plants currently in construction phases.

Skip Hauth, chief operating officer for Dakota Skies Biodiesel, which is set to open near Minot in fall 2007, said the plant will use 350,000 acres of North Dakota canola. With the state producing about 1 million acres of canola a year, the biodiesel plant is set to use more than a third of what's available.

The plant will produce 100,000 metric tons of biodiesel a year and will have an estimated incremental agricultural impact of about $60 million a year, Hauth said.

He added that indirectly and directly, total agricultural impact is $219 million annually.

"(The plant) is right smack dab in the middle of canola country,"Hauth said. "We'll be bringing it in from all over the state."

Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson has lauded the recent interest in renewable fuel production in the state but says it's not enough.

"Ithink we need to do more to encourage it beyond what we have been doing,"Johnson said, adding that the state should spend more money on incentives, research and technology.

"We're getting some development, but we're way behind the rest of the country,"Johnson said.

If all of the planned ethanol plants got through to the production stages, the state's total ethanol production would hover around 424 million gallons a year. That's behind neighboring Minnesota and South Dakota, whose production is at 535.6 million gallons a year and 475 million gallons a year, respectively, according to reports.

Johnson said the state needs to be more aggressive.

A recent public-opinion survey released by the North Dakota Renewable Energy Partnership could be the push lawmakers need.

About 95 percent of the 600 surveyed believe it's a good idea to grow crops for the production of biodiesel to replace petroleum diesel, with 83 percent believing the state Legislature should provide incentives to encourage the production and use of biodiesel.

The same number also supported a 2 percent biodiesel blend requirement, and 80 percent supported a 10 percent ethanol blend requirement in gasoline sold inNorth Dakota.

The survey, completed by the University of North Dakota Bureau of Governmental Affairs, polled more than 600 people who were 18 years old or older.

With requirements like the ones suggested in the survey, demand for the products in the state would increase, perhaps keeping more of the ethanol produced in-state.

"Most of the ethanol that we produce is going to be shipped out of state to the East Coast. The demand out there is a lot higher,"said Strickland with Blue Flint. "Ithink the biggest key is making it available, and also making the public aware of its benefits."

But for now, the ethanol and biodiesel plants cropping up around the state are adding much-needed boosts to the smaller, rural communities where they're being built.

"It's going to be a good thing for Richardton, for farmers, for the industry,"Hoff, president of the North Dakota Corn Growers, said in regard to the Red Trail Energy ethanol plant.

(Reach reporter Crystal Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)