Flat sunflower acreage may help make the crop more profitable than canola this year, says a major sunflower seed buyer.
“Our dollar is hurting us right now, but overall I think we are going to see strong prices coming,” said Grant Fehr of Keystone Grain Ltd. in Winkler, Man.
“Going over the next year there is going to be some very good potential for making money with sunflower.”
The crop could especially be more profitable than its oilseed competitors if favourable weather holds and a “wall-to-wall” canola crop hits the market in fall, he added.
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Fehr said confectionary sunflower acres in Manitoba are down about 15 percent from last year, when 147,000 acres were seeded.
Oil types are likely to be about the same as last year, with 70,000 to 80,000 acres in the province and another 10,000 to 20,000 in Saskatchewan.
With prices about 17 cents per pound for oils and 20 cents for confectionary grades, Fehr said more of Manitoba’s 400 sunflower growers are switching to oil types as the price gap narrows.
Fehr said sunflower acres in the United States are also down as the crop is pushed aside to make way for more corn and soybeans amid the country’s biofuel boom.
Although sunflowers can be used to produce biodiesel, the need to hull the seeds before pressing makes the crop more expensive to process than canola and soybeans.
Blair Goethals, president of the National Sunflower Association of Canada, said given the longer growing season for larger seeds, most confectionary seeds are planted well before June 1. Oilseed types can be planted slightly later.
Nitrogen requirements are about the same as canola while pesticides are about $1.50 an acre more costly because the plant’s height makes aerial spraying necessary at later stages of development.
Crop diseases such as sclerotina are difficult to control because of the plants’ large size, he added.
Sunflowers work well in a rotation because they can be harvested later in the fall.
“It can handle the drought better: the heat and the dryness,” said Goethals, who seeded 1,000 acres to sunflowers on his 9,800 acre farm near Deloraine, Man.
“It can hang in there longer because it will root a lot longer and go in and get it.”
Snack food giant Frito-Lay’s decision to switch to sunflower oil to offer health benefits from reduced saturated fats and increased mono and polyunsaturated fats has given high oil-yielding varieties such as NuSun a major boost, he added.
Arvel Lawson, an oilseed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said seeding began as early as the last week of April, even though May 1 to June 1 is considered optimal for the 114 to 124 day growing season for both types.
Early seeders were hit by frosty nights in May, but the crop was largely unscathed because it had not yet emerged enough to be vulnerable.
“Sunflowers actually handle frost better at the earlier stages,” Lawson said.
Despite the cool, wet spring and moist soil conditions, the risk of most root rot problems should be low because of seed treatments.
“Now we need some heat,” she said.
However, producers should keep an eye on their crops over the coming weeks for signs of downy mildew.
According to the latest census results, Manitoba accounts for about 90 percent of sunflowers grown in Canada.
