After choosing the right hybrid for your farm, planting early will set you on the road to a great harvest.
In fact, Nuseed’s Fred Parnow says the number one reason for sunflower success is planting early. Those producers who plant early have larger yields—and profits.
“Change the way you’ve done things and plant early,” he says. “People with top yields plant early.”
During Parnow’s 30-plus years in the industry, in almost all cases environmental conditions did not harm sunflower seedlings planted early in the season. He has witnessed canola seedlings die after a 29°F frost hits a farm, yet the sunflower seedlings come through unaffected.
“Sunflowers are very tough in the spring. I’ve only seen 10 fields in my entire career where there was frost damage on sunflower seedlings and the grower had to replant,” says Parnow.
“Sunflowers rarely rot or freeze in the field. The quicker you can get that crop off the field, the less bad things can happen, like weather, birds, and snow,” he says.
Parnow has seen both oil and confection sunflowers push 3,500 pounds in 2018. “Too often sunflower is treated like the runt of the litter. These yields tell me growers are rewarded by treating sunflower like the prettiest hog at the state fair. These producers are not afraid to give ’em the groceries. The goal is 3,000 pounds per acre—we need to set the bar higher.”
Parnow says growers will be rewarded handsomely for good crop management by treating sunflowers as their best cash crop.
Good crop management includes:
– Early planting
– Appropriate fertility program
– Correct weed and insect control
– Desiccation
– Early harvest
“These are not your grandfather’s sunflowers. We do things differently today than your father or grandfather did years ago. For anyone in the business, 2,000 pounds per acre should be an absolute minimum expectation,” says Parnow.
“Top management leads to top yields and top ROI.”
Fred Parnow, Nuseed’s Canada Business Manager, who started his sunflower career as a local seed dealer for Sigco Research, joined Seeds 2000 back in 2001 and became part of the Nuseed® team when they purchased the company in 2011. Parnow’s sunflower expertise spans the Canada-U.S. border.
Nuseed’s Fred Parnow has worked for more than 30 years in the sunflower business. During this time, he has accumulated a great deal of knowledge that he’s happy to pass on for the benefit of growers.
Parnow believes farmers who pick the best hybrids and treat their sunflowers right with a top-notch fertility program and proper disease and weed control practices should expect to yield 3,000 pounds per acre or more. “Give it the groceries, and you will be rewarded,” he says.
