Sunflower Producers Optimistic Despite Drought

The 1980s Farm Crisis hit southeastern South Dakota just like it did across the rest of the country, bringing a severe economic downturn that affected many farmers and their communities. The Edinger family of White Lake survived the crisis by relying on their father Wayne’s second income as a teacher, but they received additional help when the elder Edinger planted a field of sunflowers.

Charlie Edinger, Edinger Brothers Partnership: “It was tough times in the ‘80s. And so my Dad, luckily for us, did a good job of forward-thinking.”

Forty years later, his sons, Charlie and Chet, still raise sunflowers, dedicating about 15 percent of their row crop acres to the edible seeds.

Charlie Edinger, Edinger Brothers Partnership: “I would say year-in, year-out, they’re one of our best money-making crops. I mean it’s definitely challenging. I think we live in a good area with our amount of rainfall or our climate and soils that, you know, we are in that 20 to 24 inches of rainfall every year. So they are a good dry-weather hedge.”

The 2021 growing season offered a challenging dry-weather test for many sunflower-growing regions.

John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association: “The Dakotas and Minnesota throughout the growing season, about 95 percent of the growing area has either been from a severe to exceptional drought. The conditions here have been just awful. You know producers in some areas planted seeds of other crops that didn’t germinate, they didn’t come up.”

Sunflowers, however, often planted last in the northern plains, caught some of the limited rains in those key regions. USDA estimated yields are down about 13 percent, but some industry leaders were happy it wasn’t worse.

John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association: “In comparison to some other crops, that’s pretty good. I mean, honestly, that’s very good considering some places had maybe six inches of moisture since January 1.”

With total pounds produced nationwide expected to be down, sunflower prices have already climbed, reaching a point not seen since a similar drought a decade ago.

John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association: “Obviously some of that is people trying to position themselves to get stocks to last throughout the year to buy ahead. But in just the demand for the seed, when I look at what oil is being crushed and what was left over in stocks at the end of the month, there not a lot left. I mean it’s moving out of the door because of the demand.”

The health benefits – large amounts of vitamin E and high monounsaturated fat content – have kept demand high. Sales of the black oil varieties, crushed for cooking oil, and confection varieties used for human consumption, are regaining some lost ground. And sales are booming for sunflowers used as bird feed.

John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association: “With Covid, our numbers have really gone through the roof. It’s just incredible. The amount of people obviously being stuck at home and looking for something to do just to pass time, so bird feeding has really had a resurgence here.”

Sandbakken believes the U.S. sunflower industry could easily support another million acres of production on top of the estimated 1.3 million acres grown in 2021.

The Edinger brothers, who now raise confection sunflowers for human consumption, are based in southeast South Dakota, which, as of October 5, 2021 had received less than 14 inches of precipitation, seven inches shy of normal. Even with the reduced moisture, their sunflower crop still did well, beating their five-year average by 22 percent.

Charlie says that anyone considering getting into sunflower production, however, needs to be ready to work.

Charlie Edinger, Edinger Brothers Partnership, Mitchell: “Insects can be a challenge: seed weevils, sunflower moths. Diseases can be a challenge in wetter climates. They may not be a good fit for you. Blackbirds are one of our biggest challenges here…. If you were to start raising sunflowers, I would start with the black oil variety. That way you can kind of get a feel on how to raise them and other production issues you may have with them before going to go toward the more specialty option.”

Once their sunflowers are harvested, the Edingers’ edible seeds are delivered to Advanced Sunflower in Huron, South Dakota, an hour’s drive to the north. Advanced Sunflower handles about 120 million pounds of sunflower seeds annually. The seeds are cleaned, sorted by size, roasted, salted or flavored, and sometimes de-hulled.

Nationally, about 15 percent seeds are exported. But that represents a decline as the U.S. now faces more competition from overseas sources than has in the past.

Danny Dale, Advanced Sunflower, Huron, SD: “The U.S. was the primary area where the selective breeding was done to move them from wild to something we could use for snacks and oil and that, but now some other countries have gotten into producing sunflower seeds so there’s been a shift in the last 15 years… It has been a challenge to keep up with their prices.”

Sunflowers are typically contracted ahead of time by companies like Advanced.

Danny Dale, Advanced Sunflower, Huron, SD: “Sunflower is not a price leader. It’s a follower. So if corn and beans go down, sunflowers go down. And if they go up, sunflowers go up. We have to pay a competitive price to buy the acres. And some years it’s a struggle and some years it’s pretty easy. This year was a great year to grow sunflower because it’s been so dry and sunflowers actually prefer it dry.”

John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association: “Something that happened this year that I hadn’t seen in a long time is that we had 2022 new-crop prices out in August. And that’s rare. Normally in this industry, we wouldn’t see a new-crop price until October, even into November sometimes. …The crushing industry, the confection industry, they all want to start getting acres lined up already …They just want to get crop in the ground as soon as possible and expand acres for next year. ”

For Market to Market, by Colleen Bradford Krantz, colleen.krantz@iowapbs.org