Northern Idaho growers put plenty of spice in their crop rotations this year, 15,000 acres worth by some estimates.

Largely driven by the promise of expanded market opportunities, growers in north central Idaho and eastern Washington planted more than 15,000 acres of two condiment mustard varieties developed at the University of Idaho. The season provided the kind of market expansion that UI plant breeder Jack Brown hoped would develop when he set out to produce the first U.S. condiment mustard variety.

“A lot of the growers like it because it has a strong taproot that goes down and breaks up hardpan that might develop. It’s popular because it really mellows the soil,” said Kyle Renton, who operates the seed plant for the Genesee Union Warehouse. Genesee Union and Lewiston Grain Growers were two of the largest forces in developing the production of the two UI mustard varieties at the grower level.

Photo on right: Kyle Renton manages the Genesee Union Warehouse seed plant's stock of mustard seed.

The reason, and the selling point, were simple, said Bill Newbry, Genesee Union general manager: The market is good for mustard sales. With production problems in Canada and elsewhere, he expects prices to hold for awhile yet. Genesee Union has worked with UI’s Brown for five or six years as he developed IdaGold, the yellow condiment mustard variety, and Pacific Gold, an oriental mustard. They are the first two condiment mustards developed in the U.S.

“We thought there was tremendous potential, and we still do,” Newbry said. Genesee Union has sold to four domestic mustard manufacturers and to exporters. “I’m extremely enthusiastic about it and that it’s a viable alternative for wheat or other crops.”

Both the report on why growers like mustard as a crop and the cooperative’s experience marketing it fit right in with Brown’s intentions for developing the crop. With canola and rapeseed already familiar crops on the Palouse and in surrounding areas, Brown focused most of his early efforts on them. He also knew that dryland wheat growers, particularly those in the eastern Columbia Basin where rainfall tightly limited crop options, would particularly benefit from mustard. The rising interest in no-till farming is also good news for mustard because growers like it for the same soil improvement properties.

Condiment mustard is a good crop in dryland rotations because it requires less moisture than its canola or rapeseed cousins, suffers less from insect attacks, and has substantial soil improvement benefits. It is also less prone to shatter, which occurs when pods break during harvest and the valuable seeds fall to the ground.

Now Brown is seeing IdaGold and Pacific Gold grown far out into the basin near Ritzville where rainfall is short. The crop is also growing deep into the Palouse where the rainfall offers more variety in crop options but prices have opened a spot for mustard.

Many farmers this year contracted to grow mustard at 14.5 cents a pound and will realize yields of 900 pounds an acre or so. Considering the costs of fertilizers and other inputs, they’ll turn a profit on the crop. The vagaries of world mustard production have sent prices soaring as high as 40 cents a pound in recent years or, at times, sent them in a downward spiral that made the contract price an appealing sure bet.

Photo above left: Roy Patten pilots a biodiesel-fueled harvester at the UI Kambitsch Farm near Genesee.

IdaGold, the only yellow condiment mustard in line to receive formal U.S. Plant Variety Protection, is also gaining ground among processors because of its properties, Brown said. One of IdaGold’s key benefits is that when prepared as condiment mustard, it is less prone to separate.

There are some market challenges ahead, Newbry said. Pacific Gold poses a problem because its seeds are only half the size of IdaGold. That makes it extremely difficult to separate it from the seeds of some common weeds that infest fields. Developing a method to sort out the seeds will be critical to winning it market share, particularly overseas.

Newbry said the UI varieties have a place in the global market. “Jack has done a very good job of trying to match the specifications that processors are looking for.”

There’s another advantage that Genesee and Lewiston cooperatives have in their back pocket, Newbry said, that growers on Canada’s prairies don’t have—barge ports. “Overseas buyers also like that we’re closer to shipping points that can cut their costs.”

Brown continues to work on other lines of mustard, rapeseed and canola that he believes have potential to fill other market slots because of unique properties. One of his new projects is developing an oilseed variety that will yield oil for biodiesel production and a meal left over after crushing that can serve as a soil fumigant. Commercial testing of the meal are under way through an Idaho State Department of Agriculture specialty crop grant.