USA - Herbicide-tolerant camelina now available

By Michael Robin

Smart Earth Camelina hopes their new herbicide-resistant camelina variety, coupled with an attractive contract, can peel off some farm acres from canola.

“We were up at 10,000 (acres) the year prior, then we dropped down to about 3,500 this year, because the commodities were all up,” said Carlene Sarvas, a crop specialist with Smart Earth Camelina.

This year, the company is bumping up its contract offering from $11 to $15 a bushel, with an act of God clause to protect producers against catastrophes, such as the 2021 drought.


“We are definitely hoping to be back up at the 10 if not 20 (thousand acres) in the 2022 growing season,” Sarvas said.

The new variety, NewGold (SES1154HR), is resistant to thifensulfuron-methyl, a Group 2 herbicide that is the active ingredient in products such as Pinnacle SG. NewGold also features 40 percent larger seed size for superior emergence and easier combining (camelina seed is about half the size of canola). The variety was developed with traditional mutagenesis and plant-breeding techniques.

Sarvas said there are products to control grassy weeds in camelina, specifically quizalofop p-ethyl (Assure, Contender). Edge (ethalfluralin) can be used for pre-emergence control, but until now there was nothing to control broadleaf weeds post-emergence.

Volunteer canola is particularly troublesome, since the seed bank in the soil can remain viable for a long time. Since camelina matures about 10 days earlier than canola, green seeds from volunteers can contaminate the crop and degrade oil quality.

With broadleaf control now available, Sarvas said camelina becomes a more attractive oilseed rotation option. Its seed, at $5.50 a pound, can be less than half that of canola. It needs about two-thirds the fertilizer of canola and requires no seed treatment because it is resistant to diseases such as blackleg and black spot, downy mildew and scerotinia.

Pests such as flea beetles also leave it alone. Limited insect and disease problems mean low or no insecticide or fungicide costs.

“Some of the producers have said it’s kind of ‘set it and forget it until fall,’” Sarvas said.

Camelina is frost resistant in its early stages and also highly drought resistant, which is an especially attractive trait in a dry year such as 2021.

“In the areas that we’re targeting — lighter soils already — we had in some of those areas severe drought and heat that had lower yields,” Sarvas said. “But they were par with canola in that area, which therefore, with the lower input costs, you would have come out on top.”

NewGold also comes out ahead of other camelina varieties, yielding 14 percent more than Midas. In a media release, the company said growers can expect 30 to 40 bu. per acre on fallow and 25 to 30 bu. per acre on stubble.