Nearly 100 producers, industry, agency, and university representatives gathered at the historic Hartline School January 26 for the year’s first WSU oilseed workshop.
The one-day event featured a wide range of sessions that encompassed beginning and more advanced information about canola and other oilseed production and marketing.
“I thought the workshop was highly informative and very well done,” commented Andy Juris. Andy and his father Ron farm near Bickleton, Wash., and have grown canola and flax to try to diversify their wheat rotation.
Jeff Schibel grows irrigated winter canola near Odessa in a rotation with wheat and potatoes and remarked the Hartline workshop was very comprehensive.
“The live plants and new format of being able to attend all the sessions were a great addition this year,” he said.
More than half the attendees were producers, including some who have never grown canola but are interested in it, and others who have grown it for more than ten years.
“I came away from the workshop with an optimistic feeling after seeing the number of people coming together to build a canola community in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest,” said Jesse Brunner, an experienced canola grower from Almira.
Scot Hulbert, chair of the Department of Plant Pathology at WSU, added he was “pleased to see how interactive growers and ag industry were, sharing their experiences with each other,” in the session he taught and throughout the day.
There are two more oilseed workshops; one in Ritzville January 31, and another in Clarkston February 2. More information is available at www.css.wsu.edu/biofuels.
In conjunction with the workshops, there are two meetings February 1 to discuss the formation of a Pacific Northwest Canola Grower Association. Those are in Ritzville at 9 a.m., and Clarkston at 3 p.m. There is no charge to attend either of the February 1 meetings. Contact Karen Sowers, ksowers@wsu.edu, 808-283-7013 for more information.