The next time your producers get excited about new exotic crops, take a deep breath and a second look. An alternative crop and the infrastructure to support it don't simply appear out of nowhere. Developing the crop can take years, and finding a fit can take longer. One sure way to fail is to back an industrial-use crop that competes with food-use crops, suggested Terry Isbell, research chemist, Bio-Oils Research Unit, ARS, USDA.

"Food will always win," said Isbell. "I've watched that before; as food-use crop prices rise, they drive the industrial-use crop out of the market. You can't have an industrial use tied to a food price system. It has to be independent."

The recent rough road for an overbuilt ethanol industry caught between rising corn prices and falling crude oil prices proved Isbell's theory with a vengeance. With many biofuel plants still going in and out of bankruptcy, Isbell and other researchers are looking for crops that won't face the same fluctuations.

"There is a lot of interest in energy crops from growers to consumers," said Isbell. "Camelina seems to be on a good path of development. It can be put on ground that would normally be in fallow after wheat, so its competitive factor is minimized, but it still competes. Its short life cycle means it might fit post wheat, but if you grow camelina, what other crops are not grown in its place? "

Cuphea is another crop that Isbell finds interesting. An oil crop, it could someday replace or at least supplement coconut or palm kernel oil used for detergents. However, he noted, it faces a lot of challenges from seed shattering and indeterminate maturation to low yields and being hard to manage. If those problems can be resolved, it still has to compete with commodity food-use crops.

Coriander is already grown commercially as an aromatic oil source in Canada. Like camelina, it might be a post-winter wheat crop and has potential like cuphea as a detergent ingredient. Isbell and others are looking at how it could fit in a crop rotation cycle, possible weed pressure and potential herbicides.

Considering Pennycress

The potential alternative crop that really stands out in Isbell's mind is the winter annual pennycress. Currently found in every state in the country and as far north as Alaska, pennycress is appreciated as an edible wild plant and despised as a winter annual weed in winter small grain crops. The seed, as well as the leaves, are purported to make an excellent peppery addition to various foods. However, it is the oil and meal byproducts that Isbell finds interesting, and, with its life cycle, may make pennycress the perfect alternative crop for farmers throughout the country.

Field trials of various pennycress seed lines show that it can produce yields as high as a ton of seeds per acre. With twice the oil content per pound as soybeans (as high as 36 percent), a ton of pennycress seed could be pressed to produce 95 gallons of oil. Research is also underway on the use of pyrolysis. This has the potential of recovering another 95 gallons of oil from a ton of pressed seed and hulls called presscake biomass. That same presscake has also shown potential as a soil fumigant and a bioherbicide.

It is the life cycle of pennycress that really grabs Isbell's and other researchers’ attention. As a winter annual, it can be planted following removal of a corn crop and harvested prior to soybean planting the next spring. As such, it is not competitive with current commodity crops; it complements them well.

Win Phippen sees great promise in pennycress, too. As associate professor, Plant Breeding and Alternative Crops, Western Illinois University, Phippen has only worked with the plant for a few years, but he likes what he sees. The crop complements current commodity crops in terms of life cycle and end use. Due to the chemical makeup of the seed, the seedcake can't be used for animal feed. However, initial research indicates it has phytochemical effects offering possibilities as both a herbicide and a soil fumigant for nematode control in high-value specialty crops.

Even a failed crop would have value, suggested Phippen. Last year he conducted trials where soybeans were planted into unharvested pennycress stands. Control soybean plots were planted in bare ground. Not only was there no negative impact, but also the pennycress plots outyielded the bare plots by three bushels per acre.

"The pennycress plots had increased soil moisture, better germination and good groundcover all winter," said Phippen. "Field pennycress, as a harvested crop, provides excellent erosion control through the winter and spring, good soil moisture in the spring and leaves very little field debris after harvest."

The Nuts and Bolts of the Crop

Phippen is working with 32 different pennycress lines gathered from New York, Montana and Canada. He is confident the crop could be grown successfully throughout much of the country and as far north as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. One ALS-resistant pennycress line has been identified, due to it being a common weed in canola with which it shares common ancestry. Although most lines require a period of cold weather (winter vernalization) to flower, Phippen has identified lines that can flower within 70 days without it. This is important as it raises the possibility of a late winter/early spring planting in a year when late harvest postponed planting.

"Pennycress is a member of the Brassica family, so any genes found in canola or camelina can potentially be added to pennycress," said Phippen.

Currently pennycress is easily controlled with a number of broadleaf herbicides, so volunteer growth in a following soybean crop is not a concern. In-crop, there is even less concern, depending on when the seed is planted. The ideal planting schedule is to get it in the ground with good seed/soil contact in late September or early October. Later plantings, while viable, are more subject to competition from other winter annual weeds.

"Pennycress rosettes are winter hardy and start bolting early in the spring," said Phippen. "As the field dries out toward harvest, we do get some nice green lambsquarter to deal with."

From a nutrient product sales position, pennycress appears to be a low input crop. Phippen's research has indicated minimal response to added nitrogen, though it does seem to deplete available phosphorous.

"Pennycress could be a valuable crop for utilizing swine manure in areas where application has been limited due to phosphorous and also as nitrogen sink," suggested Phippen. "A quick 'dirty' study suggested that applying 100 pounds of nitrogen moved oil production from 32 percent to 34 percent with a slight improvement in seed yields.
However, more work is needed in these areas."

More work will be needed in a lot of areas as the crop is developed, said Isbell. "From an agronomist's standpoint, there is a lot of work to be done," he added. "Farmers will need help on when to control weeds, when to harvest and what the best rotation is for their area."

Learning to Grow The Crop

Peter Johnson, chief technology officer, Biofuels Manufacturers of Illinois (BMI), a pennycress development group, endorses Isbell's view. A former ARS researcher himself, Johnson now works closely with Isbell, Phippen and others. He also grows pennycress himself and works with farmers interested in the crop.

"I did six acres in 2008/2009 and 25 acres this past winter," he said. "We had other farmers planting from five to 200 acres each. This coming fall we expect a major expansion in acres."

Johnson has learned that seeding rate has a major impact on yield. In 2008/2009, yields ranged from 800 pounds to 2,100 pounds per acre with higher seeding rates. At 400,000 seeds per pound, he is looking at four to five pounds of seed per acre for as many as a million plants per acre.

"We are still learning how to grow the crop," said Johnson. "We are trying to narrow in on what the sweet spot is for planting rates. We thought some practices would produce better yields, and they did, but we still don't know what optimum production will be."

BMI has plans for the seed farmers will be producing. As of mid-June, the company was waiting on final rules for federal biofuel blending credits. Once they are in place, Johnson said they have financing to build their first processing plant. He projects it will be able to use pennycress from up to half a million acres in Illinois. He adds that Illinois has enough soybean acres that if pennycress was double-cropped on all of them, the state would need 18 plants.

Extend that projection across corn/soybean rotation acres throughout the soybean belt, and if current results continue, pennycress may have an impact on a lot of growers and their input and service providers. This lowly winter annual weed may be the "perfect pick" for a competitive crop.