The bloom in our canola fields is at its peak!! Here are some pixs. The bees and ladybugs are all over the fields working very hard. Such a beautiful way to grow diesel fuel. Enjoy...








All those spots in the sky are bees!! Black spot in the canola is a Red-wing Black Bird.

 

do you get your bees trucked in or do you have a permanent colony?

Feilds look good, it'll be a while before the canola up here is at that stage.

 

Looking great Becky! Mines in full bloom too.......Just wish I had your acreage! Whats the price for the seed now?

 

Oh no...those bees are not ours. We are lucky to have a large apiary and honey company within about 15 miles of us and the timing for our canola bloom is right after the cherry/apple bloom. They are thrilled to bring the bees out to us before heading up your way as the bloom moves north. And, we are thrilled to have them here. The bees are no trouble at all and very docile.

 

Hey Don...isn't it beautiful!! We still don't have 3/4ths our canola contracted. We keep getting offers, almost to the point of being nagged about it, but aren't happy with any as yet. Prices are ranging from 12.5-13 locally at this point. What I don't understand is why we're only offered those prices, while N. Dakota and Canada prices are at 14-15.5cents/lb.? Why would they get more?? We ought to be able to at least get what N. Dakota is getting.

The Dekalb rep came by last week and said our canola was the best he's seen all season in our area, so we're pretty happy about that. Don't know what we did different than the other guys around, but whatever it was, we'll have to try to do it again this fall. Some guys actually plowed theirs under because it was so bad.

We're going to try some direct seeding into sprayed out bluegrass sod this fall. That will hopefully help in a couple of ways. First, we're hoping the canola will help breakup the sod, while reducing tillage trips. Second, the sod will act as a form of carbon sequestration, thus reducing carbon going back into the atmosphere, and could eventually count for carbon credits. We'll see how that works out.

Know anyone who'd like to give us a good price for our canola?? Your friend in Sunnyside maybe?? I know he's getting a good price for his oil going to Imperium......a really good price!! I'm really glad he's doing so well.

 

Have you tried Kent Madison at Madison Farms in Echo? If you would like his # or Ted Durfeys # in Sunnyside just send me a PM.

At $2.38 a gallon for the oil, and $200 a ton for the feedmeal, Teds doing really good!!

Are you ready to build a oil extraction plant yet ?

 

Yea...I'm ready to make my own...it's just convincing the Chiefs in this group. I'm working on them though.

I got in touch with the Durphey bunch a few months ago, but didn't get a firm price at that time. I need to work the locals here a bit more first and see what they can do for us. But, if that falls through, I'll send you a note. Echo is a bit far for us to transport, but at the right price, we've got the semis to do it.

 

Fab
Have you looked at chemical extraction vs pressing to get the oil. It is supposed to significantly increase percent recovered.

Wheatina
That sure is a magnificent sight.

 

Yep, looked into it, Not really viable on a small scale, and don't really want to mess with Hexane! Not a very nice chemical

I've got 2 friends that are pressing seed right now and getting aprox a 37% yeald, not bad for cold press..........

I really like the look of my canola field, I swear that darn stuff grows so fast you can see it growing

 

There is another process that uses super-critical CO2 that is also used for extraction.
Probably still not practical on a small scale but seems to increase yeild by about 25%

 

Got any links? Always looking for more options

 

Try this one:
http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/People/CMR/moreco2.html
and:
http://www.pprc.org/pubs/techreviews/co2/co2intro.html
and:
http://www.accudyne.com/b12_supercritical.html
one more:
http://www.supercriticalconsulting.com/CO2.htm
just found this one:
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/cppb/gr...nchemscco2.htm