A new facility for organic flaxseed oil processing in Cherokee, will provide a market for Iowa flaxseed growers this spring.

BIOWA Nutraceuticals will work with Spectrum Organic Products Inc. out of California to provide a market for farmers in Iowa who grow organic flax, a plant that provides the fiber for linen and from which linseed oil is derived.

Flaxseed is high in alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 essential fatty acid that helps the heart, and contains plant lignans, which are being studied for cancer prevention.

The market for organic flax is growing, said Kathleen Delate, associate professor of horticulture and organic crops specialist.

“I think a lot more research came out on the benefits of flaxseed for humans,” Delate said.

The increasing market and the new facility mean good things for Iowa farmers.

“We were doing work with Spectrum Organics, and they were going to relocate out of California,” said Mark Schuett, president of BIOWA Nutraceuticals.

Schuett said Spectrum was looking at North Dakota at the time, but he thought Iowa would be a better fit for the new facility.

Delate said BIOWA Nutraceuticals asked Iowa State to help find growers.

Iowa State will be conducting on-farm research, working with the farmers in Iowa who decide to grow flax this spring.

“We did the first organic field test at Iowa State last year,” Delate said.

Paul Mugge of Sutherland, Iowa said he had 10 acres of flax last year.

Delate said the fields she worked with had half the yield that Mugge’s fields had. She said there could have been several reasons for that, from overseeding the field to not underseeding the crop with something else.

Schuett said flax provides organic farmers with an opportunity to look at another rotation crop, but Delate said it is important to rotate it because the plant does not add much back to the soil.

“I think the bottom line is it needs rotation. You can’t do flax on flax,” Delate said.

Mugge said he rotated flax into a field that had been soybeans.

Delate said flax-farming will not replace corn and beans, because of rotation and demand for the other crops.

Schuett said the flaxseed oil will be shipped to California for final packaging, and will find its way into the market from there. He said it would be nice to eventually package and sell the product in Iowa.

“The East and West Coast are the primary consumers of organic products,” Delate said.

There is a market in Iowa, though. Flaxseed can be used in animal feed to increase the fatty acids in the eggs and meat of the animal that eats it.

“There are some feed markets in Iowa, as well as the crush market here in Cherokee,” Schuett said.

Mary Wiedenhoeft, associate professor of agronomy, Margaret Smith, extension program specialist for value-added agriculture, and Sarah Carlson, graduate student in agronomy, will be leading Iowa State’s flax research.

“We have to be realistic about how much we can do with this,” Wiedenhoeft said.

She said there are several research projects planned to evaluate flaxseed production.