Another youtube clip. I am sure real canola farmers will be amused at our attempt to grow canola. The seed is under 9% moisture. And the best part of the story, the combine is burning biodiesel.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Yy81qHbGI

I am seriously thinking about a two acre camalina experiment next year.

Has anyone looked at camelina, it produces more oil and can be planted and harvested for allot less than canola. I tried to get VA Tech help but they do not have any experience with it. Any info would be helpful. Look at the 2 links for good information about camelina.


http://www.harvestcleanenergy.org/conference/HCE7/PDFs/Johnson

http://www.agmrc.org/agmrc/commodity/grainsoilseeds/camelina/

Thanks
Rockhot

Someone gave me some camelina seed to experiment with. I plan to plant next spring. I don't think camelina will a replacement for any of the normal oil crops. Cameline might grow on marginal land, but the yields will not be that good. With most crops to get large yields you need good soil and water. I could be wrong. A few pages back in this thread is a photo showing how small the seed is.

Va State U. is doing work with canola and maybe other oil seed crops.

Photos and more photos.

Awesome FF! Is that going on right now?

Has anyone tried pressing acorns? Ive got TONS of oaks, and can get all the acorns I could ever want...but I dont know about the oil content

Food grade oil is pressed from Spanish and north-west African acorns, rather than the bitter ones in Europe and North America.
It is made and used in Algeria and Morocco, and made to some small extent in Spain. Some acorns are more than 30% oil.

This is not the same as the distilled acorn oil sold in North America to hunters to use to mask their human scent with.

History
Indians in eastern North America pressed it from the more bitter acorns found in North America.

Use of Acorns for Food in California: Past, Present, Future

By David A. Bainbridge ©1986
Associate Professor
United States International College of Business
Alliant International University
San Diego, CA 92131

Dry Lands Research Institute
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521

Presented at the Symposium on Multiple-use Management of California's Hardwoods, November 12-14, 1986, San Luis Obispo, California.


Abstract:
Acorns are a neglected food for people, livestock, domestic fowl, and wildlife in California. Acorns are easy to collect, store, and process. In addition to the nutritious nut and meal, acorns yield an oil comparable in quality and flavor with olive oil. The existing acorn market could be greatly expanded and provide new income for rural people. A serious effort to identify and propagate the best oak acorn cultivars for these products is long overdue. It is particularly appropriate for this research to be done in California, which once had an acorn based economy.

Thanks,I just read that whole article also. Ive got mostly live and laurel oaks, but on 5 acres, Ive probably got 250 oaks here. Thats alot of acorns.

Great idea. Test a sample and let us know how much oil you get from a kilo of nuts.

Ill have to wait till they start dropping next fall. I would be hard pressed to find 1 lb right now with the sqirrells and deer.
Im just running ideas thru my head, and saw this post.

quote:

Originally posted by fabricator:
Awesome FF! Is that going on right now?

Yes for the bottom two photos. The top was a week or two ago.

I dont remember if you ever said or not but do you know what your yeild was last year? acres/gallons of oil, I have 65 open acres, 45-50 is pretty good ground the rest is pretty sandy.

I must admit, for a John Deere, the grain looks pretty clean....

Planting beans after canola?

fabricator, last year we got a little under 30 bu. per acre on 20 acres.
This year we planed two fields. The 25 acre field was planted late and had some stem rot. We got around 26 bu. per acre. The 50 acre field did a lot better. Not finished, but looks like we should get a little over 50 bushels per acre. Canola has close to 2 gallons per bushel.


BeanCrusher, beans and corn. More beans than corn.

I am going to try to use the chinese tallow tree seeds. I have around 20 acres and acess to around 50 acres thick with these trees. I have already found a small press to use and just want to try some mini batches. I also have lots of wild pecans and oak trees. I may collect some samples and see what I can come up with.

Ron

After a lot of work, very little actually done by me, the canola is harvested. My nephew ran the combine. The AC was not working most of the time even after two attempts to have it repaired. It was very hot in the cab. The yield for the 50 acre field was around 58 bushels per acre, give or take a little. I am very pleased. Some seed was left in the field because the stalks fell down or lodged. I was hoping to reach the magic 60 bu. per acre. Maybe next year.
Our 25 acre field did not do so good. Around 26 bu. per acre. Had a lot of stem rot.
This was our second year growing canola. Time to fire up the oil press and make some feed for the cows and fuel for the tractors.

WOW! So you could reasonably expect around 6500 to 7000 gallons of oil from this crop?

FF
I knoticed that the plant parts were very small comming out of the rear of the combine. Do you have any idea how flax is harvested? It's main product is fine linnen. Camilina has been used for fabric fiber also, maby another cash stream?

fabricator, that is the plan.

jdfoxinc, the combine has a straw chopper on the back that shreds the stalks. Don't know much about flax.