What is Canola?
Canola is a broadleaf, biennial plant in the same family as mustard, broccoli, and turnips. There are both spring and winter types of canola. The plants will grow from a rosette to three to seven feet tall and produce small, bright yellow, four-petaled yellow flowers that can be seen in many areas of the Pacific Northwest from May through July. They produce pods with 20-40 seeds in each that are harvested at maturity and then crushed to create canola oil and meal. Canola seeds are small – about the size of a poppy seed. They're brownish-black in color at maturity and contain 35-45 percent oil.
How Canola is Used
Canola uses are many including for cooking and baking at home, restaurants, and food processing plants. It's a versatile oil that can be used in baking, sauteing, frying, marinating, and salad dressings. Canola oil has non-food uses as well, such as biodiesel, renewable diesel, aquaculture, and bio-plastics. Canola meal, the part left over when the seeds are crushed and the oil extracted, is highly valued for livestock feed, pet food, and fertilizer.
Canola Uses
A Healthy Alternative Canola offers many benefits, from health nutrition to improved plant yield for next year's crop.
Canola seeds are 35 to 45 percent oil and considered one of the world’s healthiest vegetable oils. The rest of the canola seed is used to produce a high-protein meal, which is excellent animal feed for cattle, poultry, swine, and fish. When fed to dairy cows, it can increase milk production by one liter per day.
Canola is also used as a biofuel feedstock, which is the feedstock of choice for Canadian-produced biodiesel because of its exceptional cold-weather performance. Compared to fossil diesel, canola biodiesel reduces lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 90%.
Why Do Farmers Spray Chemicals on Canola?
When farmers apply chemicals to a canola field, they are controlling weeds, diseases, or insect pests. Just like homeowners, farmers are required to follow the instructions on the labels of every herbicide and pesticide they use, and the chemical is specifically for what they are controlling. Did you know when you see a sprayer in a field, the majority of the liquid you see is water? The amount of chemical applied is typically the equivalent of a can of soda (or less) spread out in an area the size of a football field! Be sure to check out our Production Strategies page for more information.
Is it Canola, Mustard, or Yellow Sweet Clover?
Canola belongs to the same family as mustard, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Canola, mustard, and yellow sweet clover all have that characteristic bright yellow flower. It's not easy to tell them apart from a distance, but when you get up close, here's the difference:
CANOLA
Canola plants are from three to five feet tall. Stems are hairless and smooth. Canola has long, narrow pods with a smooth, medium conical peak. The pods are usually positioned at a right angle to the stem. Canola seeds are brownish-black in color and spherical to oval in shape. They are larger than brown and oriental mustard, but smaller than yellow mustard seeds.
MUSTARD
Mustard is a plant species in the genera Brassica and Sinapis in the family Brassicaceae. Its flowers are smaller than the canola flower. Stems are pubescent with lots of small hairs on the stems and petioles. The pods are long, flat, and covered with small hairs. The pods are positioned at a right angle to the stem. Mustard seeds are light creamy yellow to yellow with the occasional seed being light or yellowish-brown. The seeds are spherical or oval in shape with a diameter of 2-3mm.
YELLOW SWEET CLOVER
Yellow sweet clover is a species of legume and is four to six feet high at maturity. Leaves alternate on the stem and possess three leaflets. Yellow flowers bloom in spring and summer and produce fruit in pods typically containing one seed. Seeds can be viable for up to 30 years. Plants have large taproots and tend to grow in groups. Plants have a characteristic sweet odor.