Camelina is no longer one of those all-talk, no-action crops.
Great Plains – The Camelina Co., has been contracting acreage with growers in Canada and the United States for three years and has started to use the crop to produce biodiesel in conjunction with its business partners.
That is just the beginning. The world’s biggest producer of the newest oilseed on the block is eager to sign up more acreage in 2008, building toward a goal of contracting one million acres across North America by 2012.
On Sept. 3, the company launched its new Canadian contract, offering a farmgate price of $11 per bushel, 30 percent higher than last year’s contract. With its new better yielding varieties, the company claims camelina offers better returns than wheat and canola.
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“We are looking forward to expanding our grower base within the areas where growers have experienced success like Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said chief executive officer Sam Huttenbauer.
Great Plains hopes to sign up 50,000 acres in Canada and another 100,000 in the United States in 2008.
“We’ve already had pretty good reception to (the contract). The price is higher than canola at this point, which is great,” said Huttenbauer.
The company has used several crushing and biodiesel partners throughout North America to produce 1.9 million litres of biodiesel from its 2007 camelina harvest to date. It hopes to boost output to 9.5 million litres once it works through the 2008 crop.
The goal is to reach 379 million litres of biodiesel production by 2012, which would require one million acres of camelina, about one-third of which would come from Canada.
Huttenbauer said camelina biodiesel addresses the food security issues that have tarnished the biofuel industry. The industrial oilseed is not suitable for human consumption, can be grown on marginal land, requires minimal inputs and water and, if used in a rotation, can deliver up to a 15 percent boost in the following year’s wheat crop.
John Mayko, senior agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, has heard a lot of the hype surrounding camelina.
“It does sound interesting and promising,” he said.
But he advised growers not to “go hog wild” with the new crop. He has seen examples in the past where farmers have put their faith in “the next saviour,” only to be disappointed.
“The big caveat is to start off small. Try a smaller acreage of it and see how it performs on your own farm.”
Huttenbauer said there has been plenty of talk about next generation biodiesel made from algae and plants like jatropha in order to relieve food security concerns.
“(But) camelina is the only one that is a today crop,” he said.
The byproduct of the biodiesel process can be used to produce fiberboard, glycerin and an omega 3-rich animal feed. Feed use is restricted but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is evaluating the product to see if it can be used at higher incorporation rates.
“We’ve only scratched the surface of the potential camelina holds for biodiesel production and we hope more growers will see the benefits of this crop and help to increase the available seed supply,” said Huttenbauer.
Growers who sign a contract with Great Plains receive the seed and the agronomy support required for growing an unfamiliar crop.
The company has been breeding camelina for 10 years and says it owns 65 percent of the world’s commercial varieties. It has nine new varieties this year, including two that will be released in Canada.
The company is looking for growers in many different regions across Western Canada to determine where the best growing conditions are. It attempts to partner with a crusher within 60 kilometres of an area with significant acreage. Growers can deliver to an affiliated facility or the company will make arrangement to pick up the crop.
Great Plains plans to build its own crushing and biodiesel facilities in addition to working with partners.
Huttenbauer doesn’t think one million acres of North American camelina production over the next four years is a pipe dream.
“Our agronomists in Canada are quite enthusiastic and they strongly feel they could get a million acres up there in that same time frame,” he said.
