Cost Per Acre for Sweet Sorghum Establishment in Central Florida for Ethanol Feedstock.

Equipment, Labor, O&M Costs:	Cost Per Acre: (initial establishment)	Cost Per Acre: (on-going operations)
Site Prep (Mowing, Disking, Dozer)	$90.00	$22.50
Spraying Herbicide	$13.50	$13.50
Fertilizer Application	$6.00	$6.00
Planting of Seed	$22.50	$22.50
Sub-Total	$132.00	$64.50
Materials Costs:
Fertilizer	$92.00	$92.00
Herbicide	$4.85	$4.85
Seed	$16.66	$16.66
Sub-Total	$113.51	$113.51
Total Base Cost (sum of above)	$245.51	$178.01
Contingencies @15%	$36.82	$26.70
Total Estimated Cost	$282.33	$204.71

An information search on commercial field production cost of planting sweet sorghum for ethanol indicates that our above cost estimate of $178.01 per acre is comparable to other cost estimates which are in the range of ~$150 per acre.

The continued production goal of Homeland Agricultural Fuels at the Bartow Ethanol facility (a nameplate capacity of 5.4 million gallons per year) is to produce ~600 gallons of ethanol per acre from sorghum (in line with what is currently achieved in Brazil using sugarcane).