The Sunflower’s Inaugural Issue Was Published in August of 1975
Yes, time does fly — especially as the years accumulate! This month marks 50 years since the first issue of The Sunflower magazine was published. Volume 1 Number 1 came out in August of 1975. And it’s been quite the half century: for this magazine, for the U.S. sunflower industry — and for your’s truly, whose roots with The Sunflower date back nearly 48 years, to late 1977.
The Sunflower Association of America (SAA), predecessor to the National Sunflower Association (NSA), was incorporated in 1974. The SAA was an industry-wide trade group whose first president was Ralph Taylor, president of Dahlgren & Company, a pioneering confection processor and planting seed firm based at Crookston, Minn.
Members of the SAA board represented other seed companies (commercial sunflower hybrids were just entering the marketplace at that time), seed exporters, confection processors, oilseed crushers, grower groups, country elevators, merchandisers, and the university and USDA research communities.
(Interestingly, the SAA was itself preceded by a producer organization, the National Sunflower Growers Association. That dues-funded group, led by Northwood, N.D., producer and longtime sunflower advocate Marvin Klevberg, published a newsletter titled The National Sunflower Grower from February 1974 until The Sunflower magazine made its own debut in August of the following year.)
That August 1975 issue of The Sunflower contained a plethora of production and market information. Among its articles were ones on:
• The symbiotic importance of bees and sunflower.
• A report on a field tour hosted by the Sunflower Task Force for West Texas.
• Sunflower oil’s emerging use in margarines such as Lever Brothers’ “Promise” brand.
• A profile of Plains Cooperative Oil Mill at Plainview, Texas, a traditional cottonseed processor that added sunflower to its crush portfolio.
• Sunflower’s per-acre estimated cost of production, compiled by North Dakota State University ag economist LeRoy Schaffner.
• Announcement of the publication of NDSU Extension Bulletin 25, the very popular Sunflower Production, Pests & Marketing.
• The first “Agricomments” column by Joe Smith, SAA board member and president of San Francisco-based Agricom International.
• Reports from SAA committee chairmen Marvin Klevberg (Research), Bob Schuler of Sigco Sun Products (Grades & Standards), Chuck Moses of Interstate Seed (Publication) and Ralph Hayenga of Honeymead Products (Finance).
• Ralph Taylor’s initial “President’s Column,” in which he discussed the magazine’s mission and the accelerating development of the nation’s sunflower industry.
Among the advertisers in that August 1975 issue were:
• Interstate Seed & Grain Company (hybrid seed supplier)
• Grief Bros. Corporation (makers of multi-wall seed bags)
• Delzer Machine Shop (harvest attachments)
• Honeymead Products Company (sunflower processor and seed exporter)
• Arthur (N.D.) Farmers Elevator (confection and oil sunflower buyer and handler)
• Cargill (hybrid seed provider, seed buyer and oilseed processor)
• Temper Dry (grain dryers for sunflower)
• Helena Chemical Company (Avitrol bird repellent)
• Chevron Chemical Company (Ortho Paraquat harvest aid)
• Dahlgren & Company (hybrid seed supplier and confection seed processor/ packager)
• Scott-Moeller (seed cleaning/handling/testing equipment)
This current copy of The Sunflower that you’re reading right now is Volume 51, Number 4. The hundreds of issues presented during the intervening half-century have delivered a wealth of information for growers and industry alike. Most of that information could be found nowhere else — a testament to this magazine’s mission, focus and value. Here are just a few examples of the many, many articles we’ve offered across the past five decades:
• Crop Water Use: How Does Sunflower Rate? (January 1979)
• Sunflower Fertility and Plant Population Update (March 1980)
• A Primer on the Processing of Sunflower (January 1984)
• ’90 Farm Bill Brightens Sunflower Industry’s Future (December 1990)
• NuSun (Mid-Oleic) Era Dawns (January 1998)
• Limited Irrigation ’Flowers in the High Plains (January 2004)
• Where Your Seed Is Grown – California Hybrid Production (December 2009)
• Spraying at Bloom With a Ground Rig (January 2010)
• Dryland Confection Success Story in West Nebraska (October/November 2014)
• Strip-Till ’Flowers Shine During 2020 (January 2021)
• One Sweet Crop — Minnesota Dryland Field Hits 4,000+ Lbs/Ac (December 2023)
The list is extensive. The breadth of articles this magazine has offered through the years, both topically and geographically, is truly impressive. Research, commercial production, marketing, processing, legislation, promotion, seed and oil usage . . . the list goes on and on. (You can, by the way, view digital copies of issues dating back to 2012 on the NSA website, www.sunflowernsa.com/.)
Before closing this brief look backward, I must thank several individuals and institutions who have contributed profoundly to The Sunflower’s success. It’s certainly not a complete list, but these come quickly to mind:
• The late Chuck Moses, president of Interstate Seed Company, who served as publication chair for the Sunflower Association of America in the latter 1970s and early 1980s.
• Officers, directors and staff of the National Sunflower Association, past and present, who have directly supported The Sunflower in so many ways. That includes the NSA’s past and present executive directors, Larry Kleingartner and John Sandbakken — both stalwart leaders and colleagues.
• Mike Krueger, who has authored our regular marketing column for the past four decades with insightful knowledge and fine writing.
• Our many advertisers, past and present, without whose support the magazine could not persist.
• And finally, of course, you — our valued reader. You’re the reason we write articles and why our advertisers invest in us. We thank you, we salute you — and we trust this magazine will continue to serve you for many years to come. — Don Lilleboe