Canola crop is no gold rush
Published 10:18 pm Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Perhaps it was too good to be true.
A handful of Snohomish County farmers in 2006 produced staggering results when they grew tests plots of canola, an oily grain used to make clean-burning biodiesel.
In Europe, the typical canola farmer produces 84 gallons of biodiesel per acre of planted canola. In their 50-acre test, Snohomish County farmers averaged 158 gallons of biodiesel per acre, nearly double the international standard.
That was last year, when the weather remained sunny well into the fall.
Production came crashing back to Earth this year, when a second round of farmers took the canola-growing experiment out of the test tube and into the field on a larger scale. Five farmers, with help from a seed purveyor and Snohomish County, together grew canola on 250 acres.
This time, each farmer struggled to break even.
“Last year much of what we did was academic,” said Dale Reiner of Monroe, who planted 35 acres at his Reiner Farms this year. “This year was based on reality. This was not a great year for canola.”
An early heat wave made the plant stop flowering too soon, cutting production of the seed that’s converted to biodiesel.
Too much rain and a shortage of combines to harvest the crop made it difficult for all five farmers to get the harvest in. Canola can’t be gathered when it’s rainy, so some were forced to leave canola on the ground, unharvested. A shortage on dryers — there was only one available — resulted in some canola rotting.
Once it was dried, the canola seed had to be shipped to Eastern Washington, the only place where the farmers could get it crushed and converted to oil. Several said the price they were offered was too low. They took it, however, because there was no other option.
Snohomish farmer Dan Bartelheimer was so enthusiastic about the future of canola that he was ready to plant 300 acres this past spring.
Then the potential obstacles became apparent, and he scaled down to just 45 acres.
“We backed way off,” said Bartelheimer, owner of Sno-Valley Farms. “It turned out to be a good choice.”
Just after his canola started flowering, a 100-degree day in July made his crop go to seed, which meant his plants stopped producing seeds after just four days.
“I was pleased with the results, but it could have been a lot better,” he said. “When you have a hot day like that, it knocks it out of bloom.”
Bartelheimer is shifting gears. Instead of giving up on canola, he’s planting a winter crop, which he believes will allow it to produce seed all spring before the heat of summer comes. As an added bonus, the summer could dry out the canola, currently a major expense when canola is harvested in the rainy fall.
“We’re putting in just 30 acres of fall canola right now,” he said.
Peter Alden of Alden Farms of Monroe planted 65 acres on his organic farm this year, and then struggled all fall to harvest it. He just finished last week and he wasn’t able to save it all.
“We’re going to break even,” he said. “It’s not a total failure. We may make a little profit.”
He called it a learning experience, and said he will continue to grow canola and learn to do it better as he goes.
Reiner also believes the future is bright.
“I’m convinced it’s going to work and I’m going forward,” he said.
Don Bailey of Bailand Farms in Snohomish did well with the 31 acres of canola he planted this year, harvesting all but 2 acres.
“I don’t think we lost money,” he said. “It’s hard to say. We had to dry it and it had to be trucked to Eastern Washington to be crushed.”
Bailey said he could plant canola in the future, but not next year.
“I think we’ll step back for a year and see if there’s going to be a local processor emerge,” he said. “It’s too expensive to ship it all the way to Eastern Washington.”
Like many of the farmers, Bailey is looking at canola as a rotation crop to plant in between crops of corn for dairies. Rotating crops can minimize pests and diseases. Eventually he could envision canola becoming a cash crop, but that would take time, he said.
“If the price were right, we could grow 60 or 80 acres per year,” he said.
Alden is making canola work for him by selling the mash, the product leftover after oil is squeezed out, to feed dairy cows organic food.
Wolfkill Feed and Fertilizer Co. in Monroe and Stanwood may buy a crusher and locate it in Snohomish County, possibly one that could move from farm to farm, said owner Merritt Wolfkill.
“The farmers have taken the risk” in trying to find a way to grow canola in Snohomish County, he said. “It’s up to me to come to the table with something.”
Snohomish County has given the farmers $50,000 to catalog their successes and failures this year, and to help move the program forward, county officials said. A report on their progress is due out by the end of the year.
