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| We are coming out of a brutal 3 year drought so I can't say our sunflower yields have been very good since 2010/2011. I think sub 600 would be a pretty poor year no matter where you are. We consider 2,000 lb oil flowers to be a pretty decent yield. Like to see 2,500+, but like I said after the last three years 2,000 lb flower average with 45% oil would feel pretty dang good. In 2010 we had a field average 3,000 lbs dryland and two more go well over 2,500 with tremendous oil. Last year our best yield was 1,100 and worst was like 400 lbs. But in comparison over half our corn last year was zeroed out and the rest rarely made 30 bushel. Since you are planting so late you will sacrifice yield though and my concern would be that the yield sacrificed could be fairly large. Numerous studies say the earlier the planting the higher the yield and definitely higher oil, although our 3,000 pounders were replants around June 17th which is 2-3 weeks later than optimum planting dates. The good thing is bugs will not be an issue at all this late of planting date. That should save you an insecticide spray. I am a big fan of Mycogen flower seeds and if you can find someone to pay a premium we get pretty good premiums for planting high oleic sunflowers versus the tradition Nusun flowers. But you have to find someone who will crush the seed and keep the oil separate. Anymore in our area the High Oleic industry is pretty vocal in wanting Mycogen 8H449 seed for the high oleic market and so that is the only variety we planted on all of our sunflower acres both irrigated and dryland. A bag of seed runs usually about 350 dollars but has 200,000 seeds so almost always 35 dollars is a good guess per acre for seed. | |
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Sunflower help
