Despite the fact that corn, soybeans, and wheat dominate the landscape in Ontario, there are opportunities to add lesser-known crops in field crop rotations. Camelina, a crop well-known in the Middle Ages in Italy, has been in Canada since the mid 1800s, but it not well known.
Camelina is a robust brassica crop with a wide range of applications, according to Jim Todd who works for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs as an industrial crops specialist. He recently spoke with our sister site Farms.com.
“Camelina is a very hardy plant, it requires fewer nutrients than canola, it’s quite a bit more drought tolerant and shows a little bit better insect and disease resistance than canola,” Todd said. “You can probably get a good yield from places where other crops might fail.”
Cameline's short life cycle allows it to be used as a relay or double crop in existing Ontario rotations.
“Although, it has a shorter life cycle than canola, so you could grow it in some of the warmer, southernly regions if you planted a winter variety because that comes up very early,” he added. “We’ve done a small project to look at (planting) a winter variety. Camelina comes up very early in the spring, and then you either intercrop that with soybeans or you can relay crop that with a very short season soybean in some locations.”
Camelina is gaining popularity and the market for it is slowly developing. The crop is now harvested mostly for industrial and animal feed purposes, but it has the potential to be used for human consumption or perhaps jet fuel in the future.
Camelina meal is now registered as a feed additive for broilers and layers, while the oil is approved for use in salmon and trout farms, according to Todd. It also contains a high content of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which are both good for you. It has the potential to be developed as a cow and swine feed ingredient, however this has yet to be registered in Canada.
As previously stated, in terms of human consumption, because it contains large amounts of omega fatty acids and high content of antioxidants like vitamin E, it’s quite healthy. It does, however, contain significant levels of erucic acid, which was found in considerable proportions in rapeseed and led to the development of canola.
Farmers may be able to benefit from camelina's agronomic qualities.
Camelina is not currently being produced it commercially in Ontario, but Camelina may become a more viable agricultural option for Ontario farmers because of investment in genetic development and processing.
Written with files from Farms.com Journalist Jackie Clark.