MOOSE JAW, Sask. – The president of the Saskatchewan Sunflower Committee says more farmers should consider incorporating the crop into their rotations.
It’s one of the only crops prairie farmers grow that is native to North America, said Jim Thorson, and that means fewer problems with disease and insects.
Sunflowers grow in the wild from the far North to Mexico, the farmer from Penzance, Sask., told a meeting in Moose Jaw. There is evidence that native North Americans cultivated the crop in 3000 BC. The Spaniards took it to Europe about 4,500 years later and the Russians developed sunflowers into the crop that’s known today, Thorson said.
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Mennonite settlers brought seeds back to North America when they immigrated in the 1850s. A breeding program involving 30 varieties from the Russian stock was established, but in 1964 a Canadian licenced variety was taken to the United States to start that country’s industry.
Like so many other things, Thorson said, that’s where it stayed.
“Today there is no variety research or crushing industry in Canada.”
About 50 million acres of the familiar yellow-flowered plants are seeded worldwide, which is about the total area of Saskatchewan’s cultivated land.
The largest exporters are Argentina, the United States and the former Soviet Union republics. The largest importers are Europe and Mexico.
The U.S. plants between 2.5 million and four million acres annually, with about half of that in North Dakota. Production there doubled last year as growers returned to a crop they left about five years ago, thanks to a price increase and production contracts.
Total Canadian acreage last year was about 235,000 acres, said Kelly Dobson of the National Sunflower Association of Canada.
Manitoba grows about 160,000 acres each year and about 80 percent of that is seeded to confection varieties. Saskatchewan seeds about 30,000 acres, but about 90 percent are oil varieties.
Dobson dismissed predictions that Canadians could seed as much as 277,000 acres.
“We don’t have enough seed,” he said.
There are four distinct sunflower markets: in the shell, kernels, birdseed and oil.
Dean Fraser, marketing manager for Prairie Sun Seeds of Souris, Man., said confection
varieties are finicky to grow and require more growing days.
“Quality, quality, quality is everything when it comes to marketing,” he told the meeting.
Thorson cited U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statistics that indicated consumers spent $2.6 billion in one year on bird seed, twice as much as they spent on prepared baby food.
About 53 million Americans feed birds and they spend $373 million a year on feeders and accessories.
Thorson said processing sunflowers in Canada for those markets makes sense because “transportation is killing us.”
Monty Bergquist processes eight to nine million pounds of sunflowers a year into bird seed at Sun Country Farms in Langham, Sask.
He said other markets are beckoning. Sunflower oil lowers cholesterol more than olive oil and contains no trans fats, he added.
Dave Christensen of the University of Saskatchewan said research suggests that feeding sunflower meal to dairy cattle increases milk production.
As well, Bergquist said sunflower growers should take a serious look at the crop’s potential in the biodiesel industry.
