Agricultural News
Canola Executive Seeks Official Recognition for Crop's Productivity
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 10:47:50 CDT
Everyone agrees the appearance of winter canola as a viable Southerns Plains crop has been successful. Ron Sholar, executive director of the Great Plains Canola Association, is seeking ways to expand on that success.
Sholar explained 40,000 acres of winter canola were planted in the Southern Plains in 2008. In succeeding years, the acreage grew to 150,000 acres for a couple of years with the 2012 planting season seeing more than 200,000 acres planted.
"Planting for the 2013-14 season is taking place now," Sholar said. "I believe we will see 300,000 acres planted and that may be a conservative estimate."
For best results in establishing a stand, farmers plant the crop between September 10 and October 10, he said.
"That is also the time established for farmers to plant in order to be eligible for federal crop insurance," he said.
In his position, Sholar desires to see more positive changes with the crop, and not just with more acres planted.
"Estimates of acres planted are often anecdotal," he said. "In other words, university agronomists, seed company representatives, farmers themselves and other people listen to what is being said over coffee, how many bags of seed are being sold and what extension specialists are seeing when they assist farmers with planting decisions.
"All of this is fine, but we should realize a lot of very important decisions are made on these anecdotal estimates like bankers making decisions on how much money to loan a farmer to put in a crop. These decisions alone mean whether or not a farmer will have enough money to buy seed, fertilizer, tractor diesel and oil and to make up his mind on whether or not he can afford to rent another farm or buy another tractor."
Sholar said he and other winter canola executives are working with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service to begin listing planting and harvesting data in its regular reports which cover other major crops like winter wheat, corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and cotton.
"This is part of a success story's growing pains," he said. "These are developments we need to give everyone affected by winter canola production a better, official handle on how the crop has been growing and enable them to make realistic estimates on its future production."
Sholar said NASS already recognizes Oklahoma as the leading winter canola-producing state among the Southern Plains states where the crop is grown. Oklahoma canola statistics are listed; then Colorado, Texas and Kansas statistics are listed together under the heading of Southern Plains states, he said.
Winter canola was developed from canola grown in the summer months in Canada and northern US states. As a summer crop, it is an important crop for farmers in that geographical area, Sholar said.
As such, winter canola acres planted in the Southern Plains are thrown in with USDA summer canola acreage reports from the northern production areas, he said.
"This is just another area we need to address to get the winter canola acreage reported with other winter crops like winter wheat, a crop often grown in rotation with winter canola," he said. "It is confusing for the uninitiated to try to find acreage reports on winter canola when the figures are still contained in the spring crop category," he said.
Winter canola was developed when Oklahoma State University and Kansas State University agronomists were seeking ways to combat perennial weeds infesting continuously grown winter wheat in the Southern Plains, Sholar said. Canola is a crop entirely different in its genetic makeup and growing properties from winter wheat. Crop geneticists made changes in the crop so it could be planted and thrive in cold weather like winter wheat.
Grown in rotation with winter wheat, winter canola disrupts the growth cycle of weeds like winter rye and cheat grass. This cleans up wheat fields and allows farmers to escape price dockages on the wheat seed they sell to grain terminals each spring.
In its own right, winter canola has proven to be a money crop. It has consistently brought from three to four dollars per bushel more than winter wheat when sold at the market. A large tap root on the canola plant assists the crop to penetrate compacted soils to find soil moisture and nutrients.
Winter canola seed has a 40-41 percent oil content which makes it a desirable source of healthy cooking oil, biofuel and animal feed.
by Vic Schoonover, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill
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