Chances are that you’ve heard of canola, but haven’t tried your hand at growing it before. However, this crop is experiencing increasing popularity due to increasing demand for the canola oils that it can produce. This crop is often mistaken for rapeseed, and though it may look like rapeseed, and may have been originally selected through rapeseed, it is not rapeseed, as its nutritional makeup is entirely different. In order to decide whether this is a crop that you might want to grow on your own farmland, here’s everything you need to know about it!
What Is Canola?
Canola was developed in the 1970s by Canadian plant scientists Dr. Baldur Stefansson and Dr. Keith Downey, and has taken on significant importance as a crop that is now grown around the world. While Canola grows into a large plant with distinctive yellow flowers and a cabbage-like scent, it is primarily grown in order to harvest its seeds, which consist of about 43% oil. This oil is extremely low in saturated fat, and is most commonly used in home cooking and baking, by restaurants, and in food processing plants. Its low saturated fat content helps it appeal to a modern market that is full of consumers who are looking to make healthier lifestyle choices.
Increasing demand for canola oil has made it the third most popular vegetable oil in the world, coming runner up to only soybean oil and palm oil.
Choosing a Variety
If you are considering growing canola, you will first have to decide what variety you want to grow, as there are various different strains that you can choose from. Make sure to browse all of the different canola seed varieties available to you before investing in any particular one. Different hybrids will offer different maturities, grain oil content, plant vigour, plant height, crop stabilities, shatter tolerances, grain test weights, blackleg ratings, and belong to different blackleg resistance groupings.
Items Made from Canola
If you’re interested in growing this crop, you should also be interested in what products can incorporate canola oil. This will give you a good idea of who you may deal with when selling the product on once it has been harvested. Here are just a few different products that can contain canola oil.
Edible Products
- Frying Oil
- Salad Oil
- Cooking Oil
- Margarine
- Sandwich Spread
- Mayonnaise
- Creamer
Non-Edible Products
- Cosmetics
- Biodiesel
- Industrial Lubricant
- Sun Oil
- Antistatic
- De-icer
- Fertilizer
As you can see, canola could prove to be an extremely profitable crop that you could grow on your land. As we have established, it may appear similar to rapeseed, it is actually entirely different and has completely different ultimate uses. So, take it into consideration and conduct a little further research into the area!
