Smart Earth’s decades long breeding program has created the foundation for the world’s only elite varieties of Winter Camelina. It’s the Smart Answer to growing renewable fuel feedstock demand. Originating in the frigid Siberian climate, Winter camelina learned to survive in the coldest environments. This ancient oilseed can be planted in the fall. It needs a hard freeze during winter (vernalization) and starts growing again at the first signs of spring.

✅ Reduce nitrate leaching in the soil. It is an excellent scavenger of residual nitrate in the spring.

✅ Reduces nutrients losses by surface run off (P and N).

✅ Decreases soil erosion by keeping green soil cover in the spring.

✅ It is one of the very few broadleaved, annual winter crop that survives the winter in the northern Great Plains and excellent cover crop after soybean and before corn.

✅ Supports threatened bee populations by providing early forage for bees at a time when nothing else is typically available.

✅ In dry spring when cover crops such as rye use too much water affecting the cash crop, camelina is not as high water user and easy to terminate than rye.

✅ Its early maturity allows it for relay and double cropping with soybean, early maturing sunflower, and forage sorghum.

✅ Inhibits reproduction of soybean cyst nematode (key as a cover crop in corn-soybean rotations)

Then it's time to start growing Camelina.

Like the more common spring varieties which formed the basis of Smart Earth’s breeding program back in 2005, current public varieties of winter camelina lack the required agronomic traits that today’s farmers need to grow winter camelina profitability. Fortunately, our decade’s long success in our spring camelina breeding program is readily transferred into the winter variety. Existing winter camelina varieties are even smaller seeded than the early spring varieties, lack in-stand weed control and are susceptible to Downy Mildew – one of the few problems that plague this crop. Our spring varieties are all large seeded, high yielding, herbicide resistant and disease resistant. A focus of our breeding program is to deliver these key benefits into true winter varieties.