Tennessee Farmers Diversify With Winter Canola

In partnership with: Tennessee Department of Agriculture

Developed by Canadian plant breeders in the 1960s, canola – a combination of the words “Canada” and “oil” – is now the third-leading vegetable oil in the world after palm and soybean oils. Canola is used widely for cooking oil and animal feed and is a major component of renewable fuel.

Advantages of Canola

Farmers in Tennessee are finding success in growing winter canola since it rotates well with spring corn and soybean fields.

“Canola is a good winter cover crop because it covers the soil and prevents erosion,” explains Tennessee State University professor Jason de Koff, Ph.D. “It breaks up pest and disease cycles, and it’s one of the earliest flowering plants in April, creating nice yellow blooms that provide food for bees and other pollinators.”

When canola seeds are crushed, an oil is released, leaving behind a protein source called meal used for feeding animals.

“You get high yields of oil from canola seed,” de Koff says. “Each seed contains about 40% oil compared to soybeans, which only have about 20%.”

See more: Guide to Common Cooking Oils

Canola oil has increased in popularity since 2021, when the Biden administration introduced the U.S. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge, which outlines ambitious objectives for domestic SAF production and a target of 3 billion gallons by 2030 and 35 billion gallons by 2050.

For many farmers, the crop also comes with a market to supply oil for a new Gulf Coast oilseed processing plant built by Bunge and Chevron in Destrehan, Louisiana. Expected to be operational in 2026, the processing facility aims to add scale and efficiencies to better meet the increased market demand for renewable fuel feedstocks.

Growing Potential

Jamison Turner is one of many Tennessee farmers who has embraced canola in recent years. A fifth-generation farmer in Martin, Turner has a degree in agriculture business and works alongside his father and brother, growing corn and soybeans in the spring and wheat and canola in the winter. In 2023, he joined a pilot program with Bunge, Chevron and other farmers near the Louisiana plant to grow canola, promising a stable payment for the crop.

Turner’s first canola crop weathered a harsh winter.

See more: Tennessee Farmers Use Cover Crops For Better Soil

“We had hail hit a field when the plant was blooming, and it knocked all the blooms off, and I thought it was a total loss,” Turner says. “It ended up being more resilient than I thought it would be.”

In September 2024, Turner planted less wheat acreage and more than doubled his canola acres.

“Canola is more profitable than winter wheat for us right now, and because we have mild winters, the growing season is stretched out longer, so canola thrives here,” he says.

A Golden Opportunity

Turner’s canola fields also require less labor and material costs compared to his wheat fields. He only needs to spray herbicides four times in a growing season, compared to six times when he grows wheat. He may also adopt a no-till approach to growing canola in the future. Doing this, he won’t till his fields after each growing season, allowing them to stay more natural while retaining more nitrogen in the soil and reducing erosion, also saving time and money. 

“The no-till method is promising in canola farming, so I’ll see how other farmers are doing with it this year,” he says. “It would be ideal to utilize no-till methods.”

See more: What Is No-Till Farming?

From animal feed to cooking oil to renewable fuel, the many uses for canola make it a profitable opportunity for farmers. As demand continues to grow, the versatile crop is poised to play an increasingly important role in Tennessee’s agricultural landscape.

Crazy for Canola Facts

Growing canola is good for soil health. Its taproots break up dense soil, reducing erosion and improving soil structure for the crops to follow.

More than 1,000 acres are in canola production in Tennessee, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture.

Canola oil has the least amount of saturated fat of all cooking oils.

More than 2 million acres of canola are currently grown in the United States.

Canola belongs to the brassica plant family, the same family as mustard, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower.

Sources: U.S. Canola Association, U.S. Department of Agriculture