Canola Production in the Grand Valley of Western Colorado.

Canola (Brassica napus) is a desirable source of vegetable oil because of its high seed oil content that often exceeds 40%. Canola is a special type of oil seed rape that contains less than 2% erucic acid in the oil and less than 30 micromoles/ gram of glucosinolates in the oil-free meal (Rife and Salgado,1996). Eight canola yield trials have been conducted at the Western Colorado Research Center (WCRC) at Fruita spanning from 2005 through 2014 to evaluate canola entries (cultivars and breeding lines) for seed yield and related agronomic characteristics and to assess the potential for commercial production of canola in western Colorado. The canola trials at Fruita are a part of the National Winter Canola Variety Trial. This poster summarizes the results of canola variety performance trials conducted at WCRC–Fruita during the 2005-2014 testing period.