COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Rains this year in portions of Texas have been beneficial for most staple commodity crops such as corn, cotton and sorghum, but have also favored alternative crops, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service experts.
Texas producers are always looking for alternative crops that provide options under different weather situations, including sunflowers, sesame, canola and lately hemp.
This year, continuous rainfall early in the growing season delayed planting of main crops leading to some producers looking into new crop options.
At the 2,716-acre Stiles Farm in Thrall, trial acres were devoted to brassica carinata, a crop being studied for use as bio-jet fuel, to see how it would perform, said Ryan Collett, Stiles Farm Foundation manager. The carinata crop typically is planted in mid-November and follows a similar growing season to hard red winter wheat.
“It’s been harvested and will be crushed and processed into bio-jet fuel,” Collett said.
The Stiles Farm Foundation has long served Blackland farmers with the latest research studies and demonstration trials. The farm foundation was established in 1961, becoming part of The Texas A&M University System.
Second year of carinata
In previous years, the Stiles Farm has gone with double-crop sesame. However, continuous summer rains delayed wheat harvest so much the optimum planting window couldn’t be taken advantage of.
While carinata appears to have performed well this year, questions remain about performance under growing temperature extremes and other challenges.
“The biggest question in our area is how low of a temperature the crop can handle in the winter, for how long, and at what stage,” Collett said. “We had decent yields in year one, about 27 bushels to the acre and $17.50 per bushel contracted price. However, the second year was 12 bushels to the acre at around $14 per bushel contracted price. We attribute the lower yield to cold weather damage. With good growing conditions, it should be reasonable for carinata to yield in the 30 to 40 bushel/acre range.”
Harvesting, root system
Collett said harvest equipment is the same as for a wheat crop, “just finely adjusted as the carinata seed is extremely small.
“I like the deep taproot of the crop and how it seems to aggressively outcompete winter weeds, so far at least,” he said. “However, in the two years we have grown it, there was significant freeze damage each year while at the same time our wheat crops have not suffered any cold weather issues. We will continue to plant 50 or less acres each year to flesh out this new crop in the region.”
–Blair Fannin
Texas A&M AgriLife Communications
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