07/18/05 Camelina as a crop for biodiesel

Farm and Ranch July 18, 2005 This is the first year that Stephen Guy at the University at Idaho in Moscow has planted a crop called camelina so he doesn't have any answers yet about how this European oilseed plant is adapted to the region or how it might fit into the area's cropping systems. Guy: "But it is very interesting because of some of the potential for the crop. It is an oilseed crop. It is in the brassica family so it is very much like mustard or canola that we are very familiar in growing in the area. It growers easily. It is a very low management type of a crop." For example, Guy says information he has shows that camelina can be broadcast seeded into no-till or conventionally tilled ground perhaps even early in the year when there is frost on the ground. He says it is a very competitive crop with information out of Montana indicating no herbicide is needed because of how early and quickly camelina establishes with early seeding. Guy says the crop also has a fairly low requirement for fertilizer. . Guy: "What I would envision this to be is a low input, fairly inexpensive crop that the oil could be extracted and used for biodiesel purposes. The oil profile fits into the biodiesel conversion just like canola or mustard seed that we already use for those kind of purposes." And the meal remaining after oil removal is a nutritious livestock feed supplement. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.