PULLMAN, Wash.—Will Washington landscapes be dotted with more bright-yellow fields in the future? Existing and emerging oilseed crops will be highlighted at several Washington State University field days and tours throughout the state this summer. All events are free and open to the public.
“Oilseed crops such as canola and camelina offer great opportunities to cereal producers across the state to diversify their operations. This enables more effective weed and pest control, improves rotational nutrient and water use efficiency, and enhances soil quality,” said Bill Pan, professor and scientist with WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. “Competitive canola pricing and an evolving regional biofuel infrastructure over recent years are encouraging.”
Oilseed crop research will be discussed at the following field day events:
- June 9, 8-11 a.m. (meet at 7:30)—Western Whitman County Research Tour—McGregor Plant in Lacrosse. This tour includes an 8:45 a.m. stop at Steve Camp’s farm near Lacrosse to see camelina variety trials and biodiesel processing. More information is available by contacting Steve Van Vleet, (509) 397-6290.
- June 9, 9 a.m.—AgVentures NW, LLC Spring Wheat Variety Trials, Winter Canola Field Tour—Curtis Hennings farm south of Ralston. Hennings has several different winter canola planting dates and varieties and will share his observations on this year’s crop following the spring wheat variety trials tour. The WSU Cereal Variety Testing program will continue at 1 p.m. with a tour of the winter wheat variety trials west of Ritzville. More information is available by contacting Paul Porter, AgVentures NW, LLC, (509) 348-0060.
- June 15, 10 a.m.—Spring Canola Field Tour—Ed Townsend farm southeast of Okanogan. Program highlights include spring canola in rotation, row spacing and seeding rate study, comparison of Roundup® and LibertyLink® weed control systems, results of early and normal season Roundup Ready® varieties, and Ed Townsend’s personal experience growing winter and spring canola in Okanogan County. More information is available by contacting Curtis Beus, WSU Extension educator, at (509) 422-7245 or beusc@wsu.edu.
- June 16, 8:30 a.m.—Lind Field Day—WSU Dryland Research Station north of Lind. A complimentary lunch and program will follow the field tour. Bill Schillinger will show and discuss results from the long-term camelina cropping systems experiment that started four years ago. In this experiment, the traditional two-year winter wheat-summer fallow rotation is compared to a three-year winter wheat-camelina-summer fallow rotation. More information is available by contacting Schillinger, WSU research agronomist, at (509) 235-1933 or schillw@wsu.edu.
- June 22, 7 a.m.—Lincoln County WSU Research Plot Tour—Hal Johnson farm near Reardan. Tour stops will include winter wheat, spring wheat, spring barley and winter canola variety trials. Meet at the winter wheat plots on Janette Road about one mile north of State Route 2. More information is available by contacting Diana Roberts, WSU/Spokane County Extension, (509) 477-2167 or robertsd@wsu.edu.
- June 23, 7:30 a.m.—WSU/USDA Precision Farming and Direct Seed Field Day—Cook Agronomy Farm. A complimentary lunch and program will follow the field tour. Bill Pan, Ashley Hammac, Megan Hughes and Kate Painter will discuss oilseed production in the annual cropping region, including winter canola frost tolerance, spring canola in rotation, canola fertilizer recommendations and economics of spring canola production. More information is available by contacting Scot Hulbert, (509) 335-3722.
- July 7, 7:30 a.m.—Spillman Agronomy Farm Field Day—Spillman Agronomy Farm. A complimentary lunch and program will follow the field tour. Stephen Guy will show small grain, legume and oilseed spring crops that can be grown in rotation with winter wheat. Learn about their relative productivity and rotation effect, and see winter wheat grown with variable nitrogen fertilizer rates after the same spring crops. More information is available by contacting Guy, (509) 335-5831.
- July 14, afternoon (TBD)—WSU Mount Vernon NWREC Field Day—WSU Mount Vernon NWREC. Biofuel will be one topic at the afternoon field day. The second year of the spring camelina and mustard trial testing different seeding and fertilizer rates will be featured. More information is available by contacting Tim Miller, twmiller@wsu.edu.
For more information, call Karen Sowers in Richland, (509) 396-5936, or email her at ksowers@wsu.edu.
An updated calendar of events can be found at http://www.css.wsu.edu/biofuels/calendar/index.html.
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