Vernon, Tx.-Farmers in northwest Texas and southwest Oklahoma interested in learning more about growing winter canola are invited to attend a production meeting Wednesday, July 21, at 8:30 a.m. here at the Wilbarger County fairgrounds Exhibit Building at Vernon, Tx.
Registration will be held from 8:30 a.m. until 9 a.m.  The program will end at Noon.
At 9 a.m., Heath Sanders, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Oklahoma City, Ok., agronomist, will speak on winter canola research.
Gene Neuens, PCOM field representative, will explain how to obtain canola seed for fall planting for the 2010-11 growing season.
Robert Duncan, Texas A&M University, will speak on production considerations for wnter canola. Jan Townsend will talk about winter canola crop insurance. Donnie Roberts will talk about winter canola varieties and their availability.
Producers who have grown winter canola will participate in a question and answer session at the end of the program.
More than 85,000 acres of winter canola were harvested this spring in North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. A wet winter and a favorable spring permitted farmers to harvest a winter canola crop boasting top yields and prices. Winter canola is a new crop introduced to the Southern Plains to be rotated with winter wheat in order to reduce the weed problem found in winter wheat grown continuously for many decades.
An oilseed crop with a high oil content in its seed and a large taproot, winter canola, grown in rotation with winter wheat, will break up the growing cycle of such weeds as cheat grass and wild oats that cost wheat producers serious price reductions at grain terminals when their wheat weed contains large amounts of the weeds.
Winter canola seed produces oil for low fat cooking oil and for biofuel production. Utilizing its large taproot, winter canola production will better prepare soil for moisture conservation.
Prices paid at the Producers Cooperative Oil Mill in Oklahoma City yield a better price when compared to winter wheat. For comparison, winter canola is $7.65/bushel now and the Kansas City closing price for July, 2010, winter wheat is $4.69/bushel.
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