Canola Quality in Alaska, 2004 and 2005 Harvests

Abstract

About one acre of Polish canola (Brassica rapa) was planted on the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (AFES) Delta Junction research site in 2004 and 2005. Reward, a Polish canola variety, was planted. The Reward seeds were from a local grower who bought it in Alberta. Approximately four 100-pound bags of canola were harvested in 2004, totaling a yield of 400 pounds per acre. The 2005 canola crop on the AFES farm yielded about 850 pounds per acre. Oil press equipment was set up at the AFES farm in University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in June 2005, and seeds from the 2004 crop were pressed for oil. In previous years, the oil yield was about 25-30% of the seed weight. Shortly after harvest, two samples of oil (2004) and three samples of canola seeds (two from 2004, one from 2005) were sent to SunWest Food Laboratory in Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada) for analysis. This report contains data on seed quality and oil test results from canola harvested in 2004 from AFES and from one cooperating grower in Delta. The 2005 canola was not pressed, but a seed sample from the UAF farm was sent to the SunWest Lab for analysis.