Sunflowers may get more respect this planting season

by Mark Parker

April 29, 2008 12:28 pm

— Short seed supplies and uncooperative weather may force some growers to step outside their normal cropping strategy this year and take a harder look at... what?
Well, maybe sunflowers.
The same marketplace that’s driving soybean prices up has made oil-type sunflowers look increasingly attractive at last week’s price of $26.30/cwt. Throw in a comparatively wide-open planting window and sunflowers will likely be getting increased consideration.
“That wide planting window and the fact that sunflowers are a good rotation crop are the biggest advantages sunflowers have,” says Oklahoma State University Cropping Systems Specialist Chad Godsey.
Sunflower hybrids are either oilseed- or confection-type. Most producers in this part of the world will be looking more toward the oilseed hybrids which can be linoleic (regular), NuSun (mid-oleic) or high oleic.
Of the oil types, NuSun dominates the market with its healthier oil and lower saturated fat content.
NuSun is also the type being processed at Oklahoma City by Producers Cooperative Oil Mill (PCOM). A long-time cotton processor, the facility will this year process oilseeds—primarily canola and sunflowers—produced by members of the Plains Oilseeds Product Cooperative.
PCOM now has a delivery point at Afton, Okla., and is expecting an increase in sunflower, as well as canola, production in the northeastern part of the state, according to PCOM’s Gene Neuens.
Speaking to producers in Miami last week, Neuens discussed some of the considerations for sunflower production. Even stands are extremely important, he said, explaining that late-emerging plants become, in effect, weeds.
He also stressed that producers need to be aware of previous chemical applications.
According to Godsey, sulfonylurea residual can have a very negative impact on the crop and double-crop sunflowers should not be planted into wheat stubble if Glean, Ally, Ally Extra, Peak, Amber, Rave, Finesse, Maverick, Olympus, Beyond or Tordon herbicides have been used.
“Prowl H2O and Spartan pre-emerge is probably the best weed control option you have for conventional sunflower production,” he says.
Soil pH, according to Godsey, should be from 5.8 to 8.0 for optimum yields and certainly no lower than 5.8. Phosphorus and potassium should be applied according to soil test and about 50 pounds of nitrogen is required per 1000 pounds of production.
Moisture at harvest is another critical consideration. According to Neuens, PCOM will not accept NuSun sunflower seed that is above 10 percent moisture.
For many producers, sunflowers will get an especially close look following wheat. Gary Kilgore, who has spent 40 years as a Kansas State University agronomist in southeast Kansas, says that one of the big attractions for sunflowers is that they can be planted as much as two weeks later than soybeans in a double-crop situation.
He suggests that double-crop sunflower producers budget for a yield of 1,000 pounds of harvested seed.
“A thousand pounds is very obtainable and with the right weather conditions it could be more,” Kilgore says. “That kind of a yield means you’re going to have to put on 50 or 60 pounds of nitrogen. One of my concerns about sunflowers as a double-crop is that producers might decide to skip the fertilizer and they’d better not—they really need to put some on.”
Regarding pests, the agronomist noted that head moths and wooly bear caterpillars seem to be the biggest threats in this area.
In a double-crop situation, head moth is less of a problem than it is in full-season flowers because most of the native sunflowers are already finished flowering when the after-wheat crop begins to flower.
The wooly bear, however, can rapidly devastate the crop and Kilgore suggests checking thoroughly and regularly for its presence.
At harvest time, he notes that it can be a challenge to get the double-crop sunflowers to dry-down and out of the field in frequently damp conditions. In the absence of a timely hard freeze, producers may want to consider the use of a desiccant, Kilgore said.

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