OUTLOOK, Sask. – The future is looking sunny for sunflowers in Saskatchewan, says a Saskatoon-based Agriculture Canada researcher who co-ordinates sunflower variety testing in the province.
“Up to 1983, all the testing for sunflower variety registration was done by the Manitoba Sunflower Committee,” Cliff Powlowski said during a recent tour at the Irrigation Crop Diversification Corp. centre in Outlook.
“Maturity in those days was around 130 days, so they weren’t suitable for Saskatchewan conditions.”
With the advent of new hybrids and earlier maturing varieties, it was decided to set up the Saskatchewan Sunflower Committee. Powlowski has co-ordinated its variety trials for a number of years, with six locations in the province in 2005.
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This year’s trials included five oilseed varieties. Terry Hogg, a federal crops and soils agronomist, takes care of the irrigated trials in Outlook. He said all sunflower plots were seeded between 20,000 and 25,000 plants per acre except for variety 63A21 from Pioneer, which is an early maturing, short stature crop.
For 2005, the variety was planted on two plots at 47,000 and 22,000 plants per acre to test how higher seeding rates perform.
“All varieties but one were seeded on 24-inch row spacing, so there’s two rows per plot, separated by 24 inches,” Hogg said.
“The one variety is under 24-inch and eight-inch row spacing, with a higher plant population.”
This year the plots received less than 50 millimetres of irrigation because of all the rain, which totaled 400 mm from May 1 to mid-September. Heads are bagged for bird protection. Finches and blackbirds are particular problems, especially in smaller plots.
Powlowski said the average yield at the Outlook research centre tends to be higher than what farmers expect in the field.
“We start with clean land, then hand thin to required population and keep the weeds out through the summer,” he said.
“63A21 has been in our trials about seven years now; the average yield would be around 1,900 pounds per acre. Don’t expect that on your farm, but under ideal conditions, under our plots, they’ve been about that 1,800 to 1,900 lb. per acre.”
Under irrigation, Hogg said the Outlook plots averaged about 3,000 lb. per acre over the past five years.
Powlowski added that years ago, sunflowers would grow so high that researchers would have to stand on a ladder to harvest them.
“Now, they’ve shortened the crops, so you’re not dealing with a lot of excessive stalks. They do break down quite well.”
He said with food industry concerns about labelling and trans fatty acids, sunflowers may be a growth opportunity for producers.
“Some of the products now using sunflower oil include Pepperidge Farms – the little goldfish – Lays potato chips and Pringles. There was concern about healthy oils and NewSun sunflower is mid-oleic,” he said.
“A lot of these varieties are mid-oleic. They have a fatty acid profile that doesn’t require hydrogenation and is very stable in the fryer. Processors can use the oil a number of times, which lend to the cost savings of not having to change oil all the time. We’re quite excited about NewSun and we hope the sunflower industry picks up because of that.”
