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The Rearview Mirror

Friday, December 1, 2023
filed under: Historical

Don Lilleboe Reminisces on the Early Phase of His 46-Year Association with The Sunflower

        I’m getting “up there” in years. If I need a visual reminder, I simply look in the mirror; should I need a chronological reminder, I pull out my driver’s license.
        I received a new stark reminder of how many years are tucked under my belt in late October when I interviewed Jesse Morgan. Turns out Jesse was born in the same month that I first began working with The Sunflower: December 1977. Wow!
        Yes, those 46 years have whizzed by. Like you, much has happened in my life (mostly good), and much has changed, both personally and professionally. But one of the constants has been my association with The Sunflower, its publishers and the fine people who populate the sunflower industry.

don lilleboe circa 1977 — Don Lilleboe, circa 1977

don lilleboe a few years later — Same mug, a 'few' years later

        I initially connected with The Sunflower by chance, really. Aware I was looking for a job in the fall of 1977, one of my college professors put me in touch with Al Bloomquist, vice president of American Crystal Sugar Company and a highly respected leader in the sugar industry. Al additionally owned a national magazine called The Sugarbeet Grower and was in the market for an editor.
        I’d never taken a college journalism course; nor did I know hardly anything about the sugarbeet industry. But Al took a chance that fall and hired me. (After a hiatus, I would later serve as editor and general manager of The Sugarbeet Grower for 30 years.)
        It just so happened The Sunflower was being published in the same Fargo office and being printed by the same printer: Kaye’s Printing (later sold to Forum Communications Printing, which continues to print this magazine). The Sunflower was at that time owned and published by the Sunflower Association of America (SAA), an industry-wide trade group incorporated in 1974. The first issue of this magazine came out in August of 1975.
        Charles Moses served as chairman of the SAA’s publishing committee. Chuck was president of Interstate Seed Company, a leading developer and marketer of hybrid sunflower seed in the ’70s and ’80s. A true sunflower pioneer, he was a very intelligent and highly successful businessman with a great sense of humor. I discovered that humor the first time I walked into his office along Main Avenue in downtown Fargo. There, inscribed on a small plaque on his wall, were the words: “Jesus Saves, But Moses Invests.”
        Chuck, I should add, was Jewish.
        As little as I knew about sugarbeets at that time, I probably knew even less about sunflower. But I was young and energetic, and I immediately decided to “step up” the quality and breadth of The Sunflower’s editorial content from what often had been, up to that point, reprints from other sources such as university press releases.
        Chuck and the other SAA leaders were very supportive of this rookie and eager to see the magazine improve its game. That was a time, remember, when the U.S. sunflower industry was really booming. The nation’s sunflower acreage had doubled in just two years, going from 1.2 million harvested acres in 1975 to almost 2.4 million in 1977. Acreage jumped again the following year, and then exploded in 1979 with an all-time peak of 5.4 million harvested acres in the four states being surveyed by USDA at that time: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas.
        Total sunflower production that year was a whopping 7.3 billion lbs — nearly twice the size of the 1978 crop. About 95% of the 1979 crop was oil-type. During the 1979/80 marketing year, U.S. crushers handled about 547,000 metric tons of oil sunflower seeds; also, more than 1.8 million metric tons of sunflower seed were exported, mainly through the Great Lakes port of Duluth/Superior.
        All in all, it was an exciting time for the industry — and for me specifically. I savored the challenge and worked hard to deliver on my intent. I started interviewing farmers, university and USDA researchers, sunflower marketing experts and a host of other interesting people. I also began traveling to get those interviews and take photos (no cell phones or email back then, of course).
        One of the most memorable outings in my first year with The Sunflower was to Duluth/Superior. The port was abuzz with semis filled with sunflower seed bound for Europe and other markets. In the late autumn of 1978 and 1979, it was not uncommon for semis to wait up to 24 hours to unload due to the sheer volume of incoming seeds. I witnessed it first-hand during the 1978 harvest when I crawled out of bed extremely early one morning in my West Fargo home and drove to Ada, Minn., about 50 miles to the northeast. There I hopped in with a driver for Ada Feed & Seed whose truck was aptly named the “Sunflower Express.” The ultimate result was a photo essay titled “Truckin’ Them to Market” in the December ’78 issue of The Sunflower.

sunflower express — Heading into Duluth/Superior aboard the ‘Sunflower Express,’ Autumn 1978.

Hand in hand with the explosive growth of the sunflower sector in the late 1970s came intensified advertising interest in the magazine. As more and more companies jumped into sunflower, they wanted to communicate with the ever-expanding audience of growers for their products and services. At one point in either 1979 or 1980, I tallied the number of seed companies of which I was aware that were marketing hybrid sunflower in their own bags. I came up with 40 of them! Not all had their own sunflower research and development programs, of course; the majority would instead purchase hybrid seed from another company and market it under their own brand. Still, it was a strong affirmation of how much interest — and profit potential — there was in this crop.
With the increased volume of advertising in The Sunflower came a corresponding need for more editorial content. I wrote a lot of it, but also appreciated contributions from a variety of sources. Our readers were hungry for information, given the newness of the crop for many of them. As the crop’s footprint expanded into regions like the western Dakotas and the High Plains, I also stepped up my efforts to generate articles and photos from those places.

Left: Don Lilleboe also served as executive secretary of the Sunflower Association of America at the end of the ’70s and beginning of the ’80s. Here he moderates the SAA’s popular winter Sunflower Forum at Fargo in 1979. The event drew about 1,200 participants.

        A big highlight in 1978 was SAA’s hosting of the International Sunflower Conference in Minneapolis, followed by a field day in the Fargo area. Sunflower scientists from numerous nations gathered for the event, and it was a real eye-opener to begin understanding the importance of this crop globally.
        I later attended the International Sunflower Conference in 1985 when it was held in Argentina. I had been scheduled to travel to the 1980 event in Spain and the 1982 one in Australia. But my daughter and son, respectively, were born at those exact same times. I hated to miss the ISC, but the choice was clear.
        The National Sunflower Association (NSA) was established in 1981, with its primary foundation being the two Dakota checkoff councils. Industry companies also were involved as associate members. Larry Kleingartner, the administrator of the North Dakota Sunflower Council, became the NSA’s first executive director. He and his successor, John Sandbakken, have been the sole top executives during the NSA’s 42-year existence — and both have been great supervisors/colleagues for this humble writer.
        By the mid-1980s, I was still challenged by my sunflower work and enjoying it for the most part. But I also was getting antsy, in the mood for a new challenge. That came along when I was asked by Kaye’s Printing to edit two magazines the company had recently purchased: The Sugarbeet Grower and a Fargo-Moorhead community magazine. I went that route, and for the next three years my association with The Sunflower was largely limited to coordinating its printing phase.
        That F-M community magazine ceased publishing in 1989, but I was fortunate enough to be welcomed back to The Sunflower soon thereafter, while continuing to edit The Sugarbeet Grower magazine.
        I took another career detour in 2000. Tracy Sayler, a well-known Northern Plains ag writer previously focused primarily on the wheat industry, assumed the role of “contributing writer and editor” of The Sunflower, while I became simply “advisor.” Tracy did a very fine job for several years, but then tragically passed away at just 40 years of age in 2007 due to health issues. The NSA asked if I would like to again return to a more-active role with the magazine. I was in a space where I had the time and the inclination to do so — and I said yes.
        So here I am as 2023 draws to a close: still writing about sunflower and taking plenty of photos. How much longer will I be doing so? We’ll see!
        Suffice to say, working with this magazine been a great experience for me. I’ve met many great people, traveled to places I otherwise likely would not have visited, and have helped generate a product — this very magazine — that hopefully remains not only interesting, but useful to its readers. It’s been a fun ride, for which I remain very grateful.
          Maybe when I do retire once and for all, I’ll share some additional thoughts on my many years with The Sunflower. There are a lot more stories! Stay tuned — and, in the meantime, thanks for continuing to read. — Don Lilleboe