Agricultural News
Canola TV--Oilseed Commission's Value Grows Along With Canola Acres
Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:33:19 CDT
Dr. Ron Sholar, executive director of the Oklahoma Oilseed Commission, says canola is taking off in the state and it's allowing the commission to expand its service to producers.
Speaking with Ron Hays at a recent canola conference, he says the function of the commission is vital to the state's producers.
"The Oilseed Commission, of course, is to promote and expand the oilseed industry in Oklahoma. Primarily we're working with canola and sunflowers. Between those two, we have a lot more acres in canola. The growers pay a small checkoff fee when they market their crop. We see this as an investment because the value of those dollars goes back to them in form of research and promotion of the industry."
He said that the commission collected very little money after the 2011 crop, but this year has been a different story. A better harvest and more acres have allowed the commission to make a research grant this year.
"The commission just met and funded Oklahoma State University researchers to the tune of $65,000. They'll be looking at soil fertility, insect and disease control, variety development, putting out some demonstrations so growers can see how these things work for themselves, so the money is coming right back to the growers."
Oklahoma growers are still learning how to effectively grow canola, and that's what those research dollars are intended to do, Sholar says.
Sholar says he is looking toward the future and it looks bright for producers who choose to add canola to their rotations.
"We know we have a lot of wheat ground that would do very, very well with canola. It's a wonderful rotation crop with wheat as has been demonstrated and proven over and over again. With four or five million acres of wheat in the state, if we could ever get close to a million acres in canola, that would be an outstanding accomplishment for us."
He said excitement stemming from good yields and good prices this year has generated a lot of interest from prospective producers. He said he expects about 300,000 acres to be planted this year.
He said producers can expect a little higher input costs that with wheat, but are finding the profit potential is also higher.
You can see today's conversation with Ron Sholar on CanolaTV by clicking on the play button in the video box below. CanolaTV is a service of PCOM, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill- click here to learn more about how they serve cotton and canola producers across the south.
Our YouTube channel has several dozen past episodes of CanolaTV, with a lot of great information about producing and marketing winter canola in the southern plains- click here to jump there.
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