This plant (Crambe abyssinica Hochst) has been the focus of much attention in the past and has reached commercial status World wide. Springdale Crop Synergies has been actively engaged in growing this crop since 2001.
The crop has several advantages over HEAR:
It is not a Brassica and is therefore useful in crop rotations for alleviating weed, pest and disease build-up
It cannot cross-pollinate with oilseed rape and so the farmer is not restricted by isolation distances, as with food/non-food varieties of rape
It is a relatively low input crop, requiring few pesticides
Volunteers are easily dealt with by tillage and/or pesticides
HEAR growers cannot go back into LEAR for several years; this is not a problem with crambe
The oil profile is of interest to industry as it contains fewer polyunsaturated fatty acids than HEAR. These PUFAs cause problems when the erucic acid undergoes further chemical modification 'downstream'.
Crambe is a fast growing spring sown industrial oilseed crop which is well suited to the UK . The crambe seed itself contains about 35% oil which has high levels of erucic acid. This product is converted to erucamide which has applications in industry, especially as a slip agent in plastics, and also in heat sensitive dyes and high quality lubricants. There are large expanding markets for the oil throughout the world. After processing (expelling and extraction) the meal co-product also provides a quality animal feed ration.
Crambe is a moderate input crop suited to a range of soil types. It is relatively drought tolerant and provides an excellent break crop in the rotation, many growers are noting much better cereal crops following crambe. The crop is managed using traditional agricultural machinery and provides good gross margins.
Due to its industrial applications crambe is very flexible and can be grown on both main regime and set-aside land.
Springdale has invested heavily in developing the crop, and exclusive new varieties with improved oil quality and agronomic characteristics are coming on stream from our breeders. With a substantial support package of tailored agronomy and ongoing research and development crambe has increased in price year on year – good news for growers.
Further details about the uses of the crop, and its technical applications can be found in the links alongside. For contracts and general information please contact Andrew Issott or for agronomy details contact Simon Meakin .
