OUTLOOK, Sask. – At the Irrigation Crop Diversification Corp. centre’s recent tour in Outlook, Jim Thorson told attendees that sunflowers are either first or second when it comes to money-making crops on his farm.
“Sunflowers have been an interesting crop on our farm,” said Thorson, who is chair of the Saskatchewan Sunflower Committee.
“I’ve had wind storms flatten them, where it’s almost like (harvesting) lentils. But on our farm, in most years – and we’ve been growing them for almost 30 years – they end up (making the most money).”
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He said that’s because he can contract some at a good price and this year the market was decent.
He also compared sunflowers to corn.
“The heat units are important, although I don’t think we have them measured properly. I know of sunflower growers who are successful in Hudson Bay, (Sask). There’s something about the sun with sunflowers: it’s a little difference than days. I’ve seeded them as late as June 12 and harvested them in October.”
Heat units at his farm near Penzance, Sask., are similar to those received at Outlook: about 2,300 per year.
“To give you an example of what they can do, last year we got the frost on Aug. 20, just like everyone else. Everything that wasn’t harvested by the 20th was feed, except for my sunflowers.”
He also said there’s still much to learn about the crop.
“I had two varieties, 63A21 and 63M02, both Pioneer varieties. When you look at the data from Pioneer and even our own results, they look at similar maturity dates. This variety on our farm on 160 acres netted about 2,000 pounds an acre of No. 1 sunflower. 63M02, which according to Pioneer is a higher yielding variety, yielded half. There’s something about varieties that we don’t know about and we need to work that into the trials to find out.”
Thorson said Saskatchewan’s main market is birdseed.
“Nobody really understands how big that market is. We have a processor in Saskatoon shipping product to California. He’s also shipping product all the way down the Midwest, right past the sunflower fields, in a bag ready for the store.”
Thorson budgets about 1,500 lb. per acre for dryland sunflowers. He said he’s done worse, but most of the time he does better. This year he’s optimistic because they look better than ever.
“We no-till direct seed sunflowers. We’ve had the debate on warming soils. I get into the timing thing: wait until the soil is warm, then put them in the ground. We need more work up here because that’s a bigger issue in Canada than it is in the States, where all our seed comes from. It’s even variety specific. I’ve seen in the past, certain varieties that come out of the ground better than another variety.”
When planning his rotations, Thorson will pick a field and try to keep it clean the year before. He does an early burnoff in the spring to kill perennial weeds and then a second just before the plants emerge.
“About a week to 10 days (after seeding), every day I walk that field. When I finally see one that’s up, I go spraying. That seems to be the key to cleaning the field at a price I can afford.”
Thorson will seed up to nine different crops, with the sunflowers going in about the middle of wheat seeding.
“I can’t say a date because every year is different, but that’s when I try to seed sunflowers. In the middle of the season is usually when the ground is the right temperature.”
He seeds with a Conserva-Pak using a modified Valmar system. He urges caution when using conventional equipment because he has used systems that dump out seed in bunches.
However, he has seen good jobs done with Morris and Flexi-Coil seeders.
He said his seeding rates have gradually come down, especially from the days when he was a Sunola grower.
“This year, I shaved it some more and we’re down to about 24,000 plants per acre, which is what I seeded. We had a good spring, so the survival rate was good. Usually it was 28,000.”
Thorson sprays Assert in-crop at the recommended rate for stinkweed.
“It’s always tough, because after that burnoff, you can walk that field and not see anything. But if you skip that operation, (the weeds) are going to be there. And stinkweed can really knock back the yield.”
He said he hasn’t had many cereal weed problems, which he attributes to no-tilling and his crop rotations, but he still spot sprays the weeds that do appear.
“Then you walk away for the summer, until this year when we had those painted lady butterflies. We sprayed them out as well.”
Harvest starts late in the season at a fairly high moisture level after frost has started the drydown process.
“You’ve got to be patient. Winterize your combine. I find pan heaters on hydraulic oil reservoirs work really good.”
Thorson doesn’t dry sunflowers because fire can be a problem.
“That dust is as flammable as gasoline. Spring harvesting sunflowers is a nightmare. The dust goes by your exhaust manifold and it’s on fire,” he said.
“I had nine fires one fall. My neighbour lost a couple of dryers, so I won’t use heat anymore. It depends on the year, but I’ll start combining at 17 or 18 percent, put it in aeration -even in November when it’s 10 below – and try to push the moisture out, if you’ve got a high volume fan.”
While sunflowers are known as water scavengers and can produce a crop in dry conditions, Thorson urged producers not to be fooled by that.
“It loves water. A crop after sunflowers, if we get no snow cover, it can knock the yield in half. But I wonder if it has a role to play if you want to dry out land. It has deep roots.”
Thorson said because he no-tills, he has to worry about managing his residue for the next crop.
“We tried all kinds of things that didn’t work. Then we said, ‘why don’t we just go into it’ so we went into it standing and that worked the best. Leave it stand there, do the least driving you can do in the fields so you’re not knocking over stalks, a little bit of patience and a bit of unplugging once in a while. It grows a great wheat crop if you get the moisture.”
Thorson said the price range for sunflowers in the past seven years has been eight to 26 cents a pound, with an average of about 15 cents.
“We’re far more in that 12 to 15 cents than either side of it. Current prices right now (Sept. 13) are 18 cents in the yard. I expect the contract price to hang in around 16 or 17 cents next year. That’s looking good for the next year.”
Thorson said like all crops, sunflowers have highs and lows. However, because of the weather conditions in Manitoba and North Dakota in 2004 and 2005, a profitable crop is expected again this year.
“In the United States, because of the loan program, what the return looked like meant their acreage went up 40 percent. But they lost 30 percent of that, or more,” he said.
Thorson feels sunflowers are adaptable to Saskatchewan conditions, but patience is vital.
“I’ve had neighbours who grow the stuff and at the end of the year, after they’re done harvesting, they say they’ll never grow that again,” he said.
“Then they sell it, look at their books and next spring they’re growing it again. Financially, it’s one of the few things that still works.”
