Potential of Camelina Sativa Fitting Into the Pulse-Cereal Rotation Systems in Montana.

Camelina sativa is an underutilized oilseed crop, which has potential to serve as non-food oilseed bioenergy feedstock. Production of camelina for bioenergy should not compete with food crops for land use. In Montana, wheat is the dominant crop, which is commonly rotated with barley or pulse crops (pea and lentil). To reduce root diseases, pulse crops are recommend being grown once every three to four years. The objective of this study was to investigate if camelina can be grown between pulse and wheat in the pulse-cereal rotation. Results showed that winter wheat following camelina produced a yield (2430 lb/a) similar to that following dry pea (2230 lb/a), but the yield was greater than that following barley (1670 lb/a). Winter wheat protein contents did not differ in the three rotations (~13.5%). Camelina following lentil produced a yield (950 lb/a) and oil content (36.0%) similar to that following winter wheat (893 lb/a and 36.6 %, respectively). These results will help to design a cropping system for food crop and energy feedstock production.