Rubber: An Emerging Crop in Ohio
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Numbers on Rubber About 50,000 products produced in the United States use rubber extracted from tropical rubber trees. Airplane tires are made of 100% natural rubber. Truck tires are at least 95% natural rubber. Passenger cars roll on tires that are 50% natural rubber and 50% synthetic. Source: Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center |
The United States imports about 1.5 million metric tons of natural rubber each year, which is harvested by tapping tropical rubber trees. A pinch in global demand for the resource has led researchers in Ohio to explore the possibility of creating a domestic source. In the early growing, the crop shows promise.
The Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center, in cooperation with Ohio State University and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, experimented with a plant researchers describe as the cousin of the common dandelion. They have named it Buckeye Gold.
A report from the researchers said the quality of the rubber is almost identical to that of the rubber tree. The biggest challenge of the crop: weed control.
Katrina Cornish, Ph.D., author of the report, wrote: “Our results indicate that Ohio farmers should quite soon be able to grow this new (annual) crop on a large enough scale (several million acres) to make the United States self-sustainable for natural rubber production, and then expand to allow this country to become a rubber exporting country!”
To read the complete report, go to FarmEquip.org/rubber. S