KENTON, Ohio – Agronomists and producers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of protecting soil from wind and water erosion. Cover crops have become more important in farming systems and can boost soil fertility and reduce that soil erosion.

There’s no shortage of cover crops. There’s clover, alfalfa, vetch, beans, mustard, radish, wheat, buckwheat and the list goes on and on. But what about sunflowers?

Though sunflowers are most prevalent in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Texas, sunflowers can and do flourish in the fields of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

Seventh-generation Ohio farmer Trent Watkins (who farms with his dad, Mark, and uncle Brian Watkins) tried sunflowers last year with the help of Aaron Travis at Midwest Wheat Consultants out of Converse, Ind.

“I’m not a fan of double-cropping soybeans because the yields are very inconsistent, and it’s a pain because by the time it’s mature and ready to harvest, it’s late November, it’s wet and sometimes it’s real difficult to get your beans off at that point,” Watkins said. “Sunflowers are easier to take off. They don’t need as much water as beans, so the yields are more consistent.”

The Watkins are farming 5,000 acres of corn, 5,000 acres of soybeans and roughly 1,000 acres of wheat. Last season he experimented with 125 acres of sunflowers. His experiment proved successful.

“Ideally, we’d like it planted immediately after the wheat is harvested, but we got ours in about July 15 (of last year),” he said. “We got some rain and needed it to dry out. We used a dragline to put the hog manure down and no-tilled the sunflowers in with our corn planter. We got special plates for the corn planter and planted in 30-inch rows. I was told spacing is important for yield, and our corn planter worked really well.”

Eighty percent of Watkins’ ground is in no-till, and an array of cover crops have been part of his operation for more than a decade. Last year was his first year with sunflowers.

Emily Paul, sales & product development director at Pulse USA in Bismarck, N.D., is an expert on sunflowers. North Dakota is the top producer of sunflowers in the nation at 1.34 billion pounds. Paul has a broad background in agronomy, crop consulting and seed sales among other things. Paul said planting a cover crop revolves around several factors and goals, and sunflowers are no exception.

“When it comes to using sunflowers in a cover crop mixture, those reasons for incorporations are as unique as the next cover crop seed,” she said. “However, the main benefit of using sunflower in crop mixes involves its roots. The deep root of sunflower is beneficial to sequester residual nitrogen. Sunflowers in cover crop mixtures are primarily used for soil health benefits such as cycling and scavenging nutrients, reducing soil erosion and alleviating soil compaction. Their deep tap root pulls nutrients and water up from the soil layers that most other crop species cannot reach, adding diversity and synergy to a mixture.”

Watkins couldn’t agree more.

“I talked to a guy from Kansas who double-cropped sunflowers, and he said he had his best corn yields following those sunflowers,” Watkins said. “Because those roots loosen the soil so much, corn is able to follow those roots and get a lot of moisture out of the ground.”

When it came time to planting his sunflowers, Watkins was advised to plant 24,000 seeds per acre about an inch down, which required 70 pounds of nitrogen.

“Our hog manure provided plenty of nitrogen, so I had that covered,” he said. “That really made the whole thing work. If you had to buy 70 pounds of nitrogen, that cuts into your profit a bit. But if you have the manure, and you’re applying it on the wheat stubble anyway, then essentially that nitrogen is free. It worked out really well.”

This year, he’s taking a break from the sunflowers as the bin he rented for drying is no longer available, and he wants to acquire the proper harvest head.

“Sunflowers serve as unification, a community type thing,” he said. “I had probably 30-plus people ask me when (the sunflowers) were popping up. Once they were blooming, they really got some attention for about a month. People commented on how they appreciated the sunflowers and the neighbors enjoyed them.”

While beans are readily marketable, sunflowers are a little trickier and need to be thought out. 

“Sunflowers are great to incorporate into mixes for livestock and wildlife benefiting both the land, the environment and the animal,” Paul said. “The height of sunflowers is attractive for food plot mixes to provide more shelter to deer, upland and other game birds. Their flowers are especially attractive for promoting sustainability in our ecosystems for bees, pollinators and other beneficial insects.”

Sunflowers: A versatile native crop

 

Birds love them. Deer love them. Photographers love them.

Sunflowers are an amazing versatile crop with a fascinating history. They have been used as a crop in the Midwest dating back a thousand years to the time of the Cahokia mound builders in the St. Louis area. Remarkably, out of all the major field crops grown in the Midwest today, sunflowers are the only one native to the United States. Sunflowers have many uses:

• Vegetable oil – The largest market of sunflowers in the U.S. and worldwide is for vegetable oil production. Sunflower seeds are high in oil, typically 40-45 percent by weight. The oil is considered a superior oil for cooking purposes, whether in commercial kitchens or for home use.

• Birdseed – The birdseed business is a multi-billion-dollar industry and several hundred thousand acres of sunflowers are grown each year for birdseed. Almost all the sunflowers sold for birdseed are the black oilseed type.

• Wildlife use – Conservationists have long promoted sunflowers for wildlife planting. Deer do not particularly desire the leaves but will eat the seed heads. Quail may eat seeds that are knocked to the ground by other birds, and the seed heads will attract some species of songbirds, goldfinches, mourning doves and others.

• Ornamental use – Gardeners make use of sunflower seeds all the time. Some plants reach 10 feet tall. Sunflowers take two-three years to flower from seed. Sunflower fields in Ohio have five native sunflowers: the Giant sunflower, Sawtooth sunflower, Maximilian sunflower, Ashy sunflower and Jerusalem artichoke.

• Confectionary, food use – Sunflower seeds can be found in products on many store aisles. Large striped confectionary seeds are found in breads, crackers and many other food products. They may be either oilseed or confectionary-type sunflowers.