This is what our winter canola looked like coming out of winter dormancy on 2/21/07. Doesn't look like much yet, but it's greening up fast.

It's normal for winter canola leaves to die off during the winter, so even though it looks a little shabby, it will get growing soon.

I'll post photos throughout the season so you all can watch it grow. This will give you a good idea of just what this canola stuff looks like, if you've never seen it before.
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You need to change your occupation from farmer to oil sheik on you 1040 forms next year.

 

nice crop you got

 

Well, before you guys start imagining farmers running around looking like this...


...let's compare what we are growing per acre to what crude oil production is like per acre. From my caluclations, we'll get around 2.5 barrels of canola oil per acre. Now...keep in mind that's PER YEAR!!!! Now let's see what a typical oil field gets per acre...assuming one well per acre producing around 2.5 barrels PER DAY...that's 912.5 barrels per year. Our canola oil is worth around $55/barrel, if we're lucky...Price of oil today was around $60/barrel. So, where we gross $55/acre/year, an oil sheik grosses $54,750/acre/year!!!! A bit of a difference...don't ya think??

DON'T THINK YOU'LL SEE A LOT OF OIL WEALTHY FARMERS!!! Believe me folks, canola seed is not a big money maker for us, in fact, local university studies show we grow it at a loss. The value of growing it for us is as a rotation crop to better manage diseases and weeds in our fields and improve the soil, so we can grow more food crops to feed all of you. However, it sure does feel good to be doing something to help with our country's need for alternative fuels!!! IT'S A WIN WIN SITUATION!!! But, it ain't gonna make us rich.

 

Your calculations are incorrect. Get in contact with Don aka Fabman and he will tell you that canola will produce anywhere from 250 to 350 gallons of bio per acre. Based on a 55 gallon drum that is 4.54 barrels to 6.363 barrels per acre of irrigated land. Now you are the farmer and so is Don. Here in AZ if there is any agriculture districts left that havent sold out to the home developers( $335,000 per acre) We can produce year round on alternating flower and watermelon fields.

 

Oh by the way my mother in law is a food broker and the cheapest I can buy refined canola is over 2 dollars a gallon.

 

My first statement is not meant to insult, I posted without correct puctuation. Don and 2 other farmers planted last season 2 plots of 20 acres and 1 at 25 acres to produce enouph biodiesel for the 3 farms for half the season or 6 months. Hopefully Don will jump in and correct my youthful or any exaggerations I may have posted.

 

Well, Don is a better farmer than me. Remember I'm comparing "barrels" of oil here. A barrel of crude oil is 42 gallons. I come up with an estimate of around 147 gallons of refined BD per acre on our farm.

DON!!! If you have time, see what you come up with trying to do the same thing I did here!! I used 1 oil well per acre pumping around 2.5 barrels (42gal/barrel) of crude per day.

 

Growing canola is a real challenge, and the yield can vary wildly!

I have a friend that averaged 4,500 lbs/ acre last year on 2,000 acres. With an average oil yield of 37% by weight. That's about 231.25 gallons per acre. The University of Idaho has developed a new strain of canola that produces 52% oil/ pound of seed. This new strain would produce approx 325 gallons/ acre at the same 4,500 lbs/acre yield.

My friend Ted found out that pre-irrigating the field before planting, then irrigating in the spring produces between 2,500 to 3,000 lbs of seed per acre, BUT by pre-irrigating then applying NO spring irrigation the yield increases above 4,000 lbs per acre. The U of I test plots show the same results! Prof VonGerpin told me that canola is basically a desert plant, and spring irrigation just produces more vegetative growth with a smaller yield, but by "stressing" the canola plant with no spring irrigation you get less vegetative growth but more seed production. We're on a learning curve here and more experimenting is necessary to increase our knowledge of the canola plant.

Becky is right tho........we'll never be able to generate the amounts of oil that "normal" oil fields produce. But they are running out of oil reserves........we can always plant more oil-seed crops

 

Kenny
In AZ the crop to grow is Oil Palms.
Of all the oil crops that is the highest Yield/acre. The only one potential crop that excedes it is algae and algae production hasnt been perfected yet.
Those folks over by Palm Springs and Indio should consider abandoning dates and switching.