Excerpts from the October/November 1985 issue of The Sunflower

        Editor’s Note:  The Sunflower’s 1995 publishing schedule did not include either an October or November issue.  So our regular ‘30 Years Ago’ page this month instead travels back 40 years, to the October/November 1985 issue of this magazine.

        USDA Facility Progresses — “A new USDA research facility, to be constructed on the campus of North Dakota State University, is moving closer to reality.  Groundbreaking for the building, which comes about as a result of a $9.2 million congressional appropriation, is slated for next spring, with completion scheduled for the fall of 1987.

        “The building will house USDA sunflower, sugarbeet and cereal grain research teams, as well as several NDSU scientists and the university’s electron microscope unit.  The new facility and location of selected scientists there will also allow for the concentration of much of the biotechnological research being carried out by USDA and NDSU scientists.

        “Six USDA sunflower researchers, along with support personnel, will be stationed at the facility.  These six are: Don Zimmerman and Brady Vick, biochemists; C.C. Jan, cytogeneticist; Jerry Miller, research geneticist; Tom Gulya, plant pathologist; and Laurence Charlet, entomologist.

        “Zimmerman, who is also the leader of the USDA Oilseeds Research Unit at Fargo, says the new building will provide researchers with much better laboratories and other support facilities, including growth chambers and tissue culture rooms for genetic engineering.”

        Sunflower Fits into Double-Crop Scheme / By Don Lilleboe — “Double-cropped sunflower has found a home within Don Dejmal’s crop rotation.  After four years of planting it behind wheat, the Munden, Kan., farmer terms sunflower as ‘the first crop I’ve seen in this area to really work out for double-crop.’

        “The north central Kansas winter wheat crop normally comes off around the first of July.  Weather permitting, Dejmal likes to plant his sunflower about two weeks later, aiming for an eventual late October/early November harvest.

        “Some area double-crop producers burn their wheat stubble prior to planting sunflower.  Their reasons usually are twofold:  first, to avoid seeding through the wheat stubble and second, to curtail the amount of volunteer wheat in the field.

        “Dejmal opts to plant into the standing stubble, however.  His farm is geared toward minimum tillage in an effort to preserve soil moisture and heighten soil organic matter.  He doesn’t use a herbicide on the double-cropped sunflower, explaining that he hasn’t found anything that will effectively control volunteer wheat — ‘and that’s really our only significant weed problem.’

        “Instead, Dejmal runs an undercutter (V-blade) beneath the wheat stubble at a two- to three-inch depth prior to planting sunflower.  This takes care of some of the germinated volunteer wheat.  And while 1985 provided an exception, Dejmal says the hot, dry weather typically found in his area during July and August tends to stunt remaining volunteer growth — while the deeper-rooting sunflower plants are more able to go down for moisture.”

        Per Acre Payment Urged — “In a letter sent to U.S. senators in mid-October, National Sunflower Association President Harvey Andres urged their support of an amendment being introduced by Minnesota Senator Rudy Boschwitz and others to provide per acre payments to sunflower and soybean producers.  Andres noted that while sunflower has never had any loan or price support program, ‘as the farm crisis deepens, farmers are financially forced into growing program crops while reducing their sunflower and other nonprogram crop acres.’

        “Andres stressed U.S. sunflower’s extreme dependence on the export market and also noted the simultaneous increase in sunflower production in nations such as Argentina and France.  He explained that given the differing subsidization programs in those nations, it is very difficult for the U.S. grower to compete in world markets and still command a profitable price for his sunflower.

        “The Boschwitz amendment would help U.S. sunflower growers compete in the world marketplace and simultaneously help the crop compete for acres at home.  The amendment calls for transitional income payments, with payments determined by a farmer’s 1981-85 average sunflower acreage (or his actual current plantings, whichever is less).”

        Harvest in the Spring? / By Skip Bye — “Anyone planting a sunflower field in the spring or early summer anticipates harvesting that crop later the same fall.  And even if one does get caught by cold temperatures and early winter snows, there’s nothing that says you can’t wait a bit and harvest in December or January.  It’s been done many times — and successfully, as freezing temperatures harden the ground and drop moisture.

        “But what about overwintering and sunflower in the field?  Might it pay to let Mother Nature store the crop through the winter and then come in with the combine in the spring? . . . .

        “Marv Klevberg has grown sunflower in the Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota for more than three decades.  During several of those years, he has been forced to leave fields standing into the winter.  Klevberg always anticipates some yield loss under such conditions. ?Since the region’s prevailing winds are northwesterly, the most notable damage occurs within the first 100 feet along the west side of the fields, where Klevberg has incurred up to 20 percent weather-induced stalk breakage.

        “The amounts of both snow and lodging are typically reduced toward the middle of his fields, and Klevberg has combined those portions during the winter months, weather permitting.  Remaining strips of sunflower are then harvested in early May after the snow melts.  Klevberg terms spring combining as basically a salvage operation, with expectations of significantly reduced yields. . . .

        “Coteau, N.D., farmer Arnold Funk reports having overwintered sunflower several times — and with good success.  Funk is located in the northwestern part of the state, where cumulative snowfall amounts are normally less than in the Red River Valley.

          “Funk’s view is that harvesting seeds at 25 percent or higher moisture is not worth the hassle.  He lets Mother Nature dry and store his seeds.  The key, he says, is to be ready to combine as soon as possible in the spring.”