Canadian oilseed growers could have a third major option to choose from if research into a new crop continues to build on its promising foundation.
Seed growers and crop breeders are pumped about the prospects for camelina, an ancient crop that belongs to the same family as canola but produces an oil with a fatty acid profile similar to flax.
“There is good potential for it to develop into an alternate oilseed for Canada,” said Agriculture Canada oilseed breeder Kevin Falk.
He came to that conclusion after poring over years of encouraging results from field trials in Saskatoon, Scott, Sask., and Beaverlodge, Alta.
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Falk said the average oil content for the crop is in the 40 percent range, similar to some of the older canola varieties on the market.
The oil is more than 90 percent unsaturated and contains significant amounts of the highly sought after Omega 3 fatty acid.
But what most excites researchers is how well the 19 lines brought over from Europe have performed agronomically at challenging locations.
“I’ve grown it in the Peace (district) now for about four or five years and every year it surprises me,” said Falk.
In the summer of 2006 it performed extremely well in that short-season growing region despite severe drought. Falk believes it merits serious consideration as an alternative crop for northern Alberta.
“Given a good stand establishment early, it will out yield Argentine canola up there.”
Hugh Campbell, a specialty seed grower from Qu’Appelle, Sask., has experimented with the crop for about eight years and is convinced it will take acreage away from canola in the near future.
“Agronomically it is much more farmer-friendly, so it looks like it could be fairly major,” said the owner of Terramax, a crop development firm.
Last year he contracted a few thousand acres of production with about 40 or 50 growers across the prairie provinces and has heard nothing but glowing reports about it.
“This is the most competitive thing we’ve ever seen, so we are getting away without herbicides,” he said.
Growers in the Nipawin, Sask., area told Campbell bertha armyworms did not walk through the crop, but around it.
Campbell said he sold the crop into nutraceutical, margarine and biodiesel markets in Europe this year, generating as much as a $7.40 per bushel return for some of his growers.
He has spoken to biodiesel developers in Europe who would like to secure 100,000 tonnes of camelina per year starting in late 2008.
Campbell said camelina is an outstanding crop that provides growers with the same income as canola but offers less risk of crop failure, lower input costs and no technology fees.
“It’s not going to be very long before the big companies are going to push me aside,” he said.
Falk tempered some of Campbell’s enthusiasm with a warning that agronomic and marketing issues need to be worked out before the oilseed could join the ranks of flax and canola.
Camelina’s small seed size is probably the biggest deterrent to the rapid adoption of the crop. A sample of 1,000 kernels weighs about half as much as a similar-sized sample of canola. That makes the crop difficult to manage with large seeding and harvesting equipment.
Falk said the prospects are good for developing improved varieties with larger seeds and better oil content that are well adapted to Western Canada.
