Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A blooming canola field blankets the Palouse hills in a mantle of sunshine.
Canola is in bloom once again in Whitman County with its bright yellow petals taking over hills for a crop that keeps increasing in this area.
In 2012, seven Whitman County farms grew canola. Five years later, it was 25.
"A lot more acres (in the state), definitely, again from last year to this year," said Karen Sowers, WSU Extension and Outreach Specialist who is also the executive director for the Pacific Northwest Canola Association.
Last year, more than 67,000 acres of canola were grown in Washington, compared to 15,000 in 2012.
"Maybe 85,000 acres in Washington this year, that's my guesstimate," Sowers said.
On June 30, the USDA will release the numbers for 2019.
Sowers credited the increase to an oversupply of garbanzo beans, so farmers have switched some acres to canola. In all, reasons for increased canola in Whitman County include crop rotation, weed control, university research and weather patterns.
Another factor is a processing plant built in Warden in 2012. Designed to crush 350,000 metric tons of canola seed every year, the facility is the largest commercial-scale canola processing operation west of the Rocky Mountains, producing food-grade oil and canola meal products.
Winter canola is planted in August while spring canola is planted in April to be harvested in July.
Seeding canola uses the same drill as in seeding wheat and the same combine for harvest.
Uses for canola include the oil for cooking while another large use is for animal feed. Some is also used in biodiesel.
Canola is a relatively new crop, developed in the early 1970s at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Its origin is rapeseed, in which researchers lowered the erucic acid. The name canola derives from Canadian Oil Low Acid.
The crop was introduced in the United States in 1985 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted canola oil "generally regarded as safe" status. By 2012, 1.6 million acres were planted nationwide.
In Whitman County, in 2014, farmers planted 4,489 acres of canola, an increase of 3,445 acres two years before.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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