For diversified crop farmer and chairman of the Oklahoma Oilseed Commission Brent Rendel, his operation is all about making profit. The decisions he makes for his operation are based on how well a crop can carry its own weight.
“The whole reason we’re in this game is not yield,” Rendel said, “it’s profit. We have to at the end of the day look at each crop and say - Is this the right decision?”
Rendel’s operation currently produces wheat, grain sorghum, corn and soybeans both as single and double crops. A few years ago Rendel made the decision to add canola as well to his rotation.
“Looking at it, it was one of those things that was going to improve my overall operation,” Rendel said. “Realistically when you look at it as a whole system approach, it really makes a nice fit.”
He said his choice was not about canola versus wheat, (as he continues to sow wheat) but was about how canola impacted the production of his other crops in the rotation.
“It’s really a cover crop that I can sell at the end of the day,” Rendel said.
Rendel keeps a close watch on the markets and alluded that canola has actually turned out to be the crop easiest to market for him, finding late May, early June as obvious times to sell when processors need the seed to keep production moving. He says currently, the markets are telling us that as a planet, we need to be producing less wheat. He says he will be doing his part, by planting less wheat this year to help in the effort to reverse prices.
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