Canola Acres On The Rise In America
October 3, 2023
More farmers across America are adopting new cropping rotations to help take advantage of the agronomic benefits. And one of these crops is canola. U.S. Canola Association President Andrew Moore discusses why.
"Farmers are interested in moving in a direction that changes the scope of what they're doing in agronomy and production practices," said Moore. "They're trying to add value in the rotation and changing up crop protection product use is important. So, adding in a broad leaf into a rotation with cereal grains is extremely important across the U.S."
Columbia Grain International (CGI) CEO Jeff Van Pevenage says in addition to the agronomic benefits, there’s also financial benefits to raising canola. He ways CGI wants to help growers maximize their return on investment.
"Yes, we want to be there to help support them; show them how to grow it; and show them how to market it," said Van Pevenage. "What's the market looking for? We want to be able to have open discussions about how to increase the acres and how to change your rotations around. Our job out there is really to bring markets to growers and show them what consumers want."
Moore says helping to drive the demand for more canola acres across America is the need for more biofuels.
"We've seen a big growth in demand for renewable fuels," said Moore. "Since the RFS mandate changed to allow canola oil to be used in renewable fuels, we've seen farmers become more interested in canola to support the increase in the amount of renewable fuels that can be produced across the country."
Van Pevanage says farmers need risk management tools like crop insurance available for canola to help encourage more planted acres.
"One of the things that we're working on is having those discussions with our lawmakers and legislatures," said Van Pevenage. "We need to help push and get those items out there for farmers so they're able to get the insurance and grow them. We're certainly willing to stand by with farmers every day and fight for things that make agriculture better."
It's exciting to see farmers embracing the agronomic and financial benefits of adding an oilseed crop like canola to their traditional pulse and cereal grain cropping rotations.
Source: Western Ag Network
