Tavin Schneider, Sustainable Oils LLC assistant breeder, will talk about the potential of camelina in Montana and contracts the Sustainable Oils Company offers to growers at the EARC Field Day Tour, starting at 9:30 a.m. MT on Tuesday, July 12.
Formed in 2013 with headquarters in Great Falls, Sustainable Oils is the world’s leading camelina seed company for renewable diesel production. According to susoils.com, it owns an industry leading portfolio of property rights, including patents and production know-how, to produce its proprietary varieties of camelina as a nonfood based ultra-low carbon biofuels feedstock.
Schneider works to support the breeding program through field and chamber trialing, quality testing, and project management.
He will be presenting information about Sustainable Oils breeds camelina as a renewable fuel feedstock, their breeding goals/targets: yield, herbicide tolerance, oil profiles, suitability for the growing region, fertilizer study that MSU is performing using SusOils Camelina.
He will also highlight contracting camelina growers in eastern Montana. 2022 was the first year that we grew camelina commercially in Eastern Montana. “We look forward to working with those farmers again and are also looking to increase our acreages there in 2023. We currently have delivery points in Wolf Point and Glendive to support our farmers in the region,” said Schneider.
MSU is conducting a fertility trial, evaluating many different nitrogen and sulfur rates applied to camelina production. “Fertilizer expenses are a major consideration when growers are making cropping decisions. We believe camelina fertility requirements will be relatively low when compared to other crops,” added Schneider.
The company is targeting fallow acres across Montana and the high plains. By targeting fallow acres, they are offering the opportunity to turn otherwise idle land into profitable acres for growers.
“Our team works closely with camelina producers to establish, manage, harvest, and deliver their crop.”
Their breeding efforts focus on developing varieties suited for specific soil and environmental conditions, improving the oil profiles for more efficient refining, and including tolerance traits to make more acres available for camelina production.
Agronomic studies work on optimizing fertility rates, trialing agronomic practices such as seed density and herbicide applications and addressing growers’ concerns.
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