Sunflowers and harvesting

[bitty]

I'm wondering what experience anyone has with harvesting sunflower especially in the north east. I was asked to consider planting some for sunflower seed to sell . What are the challenges and how are they harvested , corn head ? 

[Long Farms]

Row Crop head is the best for gathering sunflower heads. Hesston made head hunters but they fizzled out by early 90s. You can use a reel platform but have to be careful not to shatter the head. 

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

I don’t have any experience in the northeast. I have used a corn head, but in my opinion it’s too rough on them. You just about have to have knife rolls. It would work for a small amount as a trial. We use a Deere 853A row crop head. I tried a platform, but I don’t see how you can get it to work without sunflower pans on, we sure couldn’t and I didn’t want to buy pans. 

[KWRB]

There was a thread on here once about it. Iirc, harvesting sunflowers is more prone to fires than other crops, and someone makes a dedicated sunflower harvester head for them.

[cjf711]

We grew about 15 acres of sunflowers for wildlife refuge on some ground we rented.

Planting worked well with a cyclo and a popcorn drum.   We never had to harvest them though,  just mow strips in them for the "hunters" to ambush prey from...

[dale560]

853 all crop worked the best or a sunflower pan system. A Draper head will work but not well. There was a place selling plates for a corn head but they will shatter a bunch. Yes sunflowers like to start a combine on fire, a set of pans or the new sunflower auger headers work well. 

[bitty]

Ok, sounds less feasible to do this unless it's small enough to hand harvest 

[dale560]

10 minutes ago, bitty said:

Ok, sounds less feasible to do this unless it's small enough to hand harvest 

Google sunflower harvest a guy is combining some with a new Holland and what would be a 2020 or 3020 flex head. Doing not a bad job for lots of acres a dedicated head would be better.

[SDman]

Tim, were John Deere All-crop headers ever popular in the Northeast?  I would think with all the small fields you guys talk about, that would be the most feasible. 453/653 models were 4/6rn, respectively. 

We've harvested flowers for 30+ years here, still have 1000s of acres of them around here most years. I've seen them harvested with All-crop heads, corn heads, straight heads with pans, Sunmaster heads, Fantini heads(Google those), Lee-Way headers and now we sell Nardi headers for sunflowers. They all have advantages/disadvantages. 

[hardtail]

1 hour ago, cjf711 said:

We grew about 15 acres of sunflowers for wildlife refuge on some ground we rented.

Planting worked well with a cyclo and a popcorn drum.   We never had to harvest them though,  just mow strips in them for the "hunters" to ambush prey from...

Guess the wildlife refuge was false advertising on behalf of the game, kind of similarities between voting and democracy right now 🤔

[dale560]

Here is a picture of that big harvester in Ukraine doing sunflowers. They yield good over there but just modern practices and they could double .

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

This is what we use (853A). Around here you can find a 653 in the fence and buy it for scrap price. Nobody wants them here anymore. You can get a lot of money in them if they are in bad shape though. The “A” series are the only ones here that are worth anything, and they’re not worth much. Milo was a bigger crop here years ago and that was the main use for them here. I used to see Hesston head hunters at consignment auctions on a regular basis, but I haven’t seen any for a while now. The junk man bought them all. 

[vtfireman85]

When are sun flowers harvested? I pictured them still in bloom but obviously that doesn’t make sense. The picture @dale560 posted looked like they had over wintered. 

[jimw]

 Yes combine late October or mid November, have combined the after the first also . These didn’t look like much but ran like 1800lbs a acre

[Troll]

Never have been around farming myself other than machinery repair. What do sunflowers provide as a commodity? I see a few fields of them scattered, but have never asked what they provide. 

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

12 minutes ago, Troll said:

Never have been around farming myself other than machinery repair. What do sunflowers provide as a commodity? I see a few fields of them scattered, but have never asked what they provide. 

Around here what few there are is for the bird seed market. Major producing areas raise them where they will be crushed for sunflower oil and made into sunflower meal as a protein source. Confectionary sunflowers are the type that are raised for food grade, that is a much smaller market. 

[hardtail]

Ukraine and Russia are big global contributors to the market, might be a good year to plant?

[SDman]

Looks like South Dakota out-produced North Dakota last year for sunflowers. The Dakotas usually fight for the top spot every year. As far as what they are used for, most are grown around here for oil or birdseed. There is a huge birdseed plant in a town 15 miles west of me. They make birdseed for all the big name box stores there(Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc). That plant runs 24/7. They blent the sunflowers with milo, millet, and other grains. 

[Troll]

I've never known but see isolated fields of them; usually north of Peoria, IL which I travel often. I've never seen a complete field populated but usually a "patch" of the acreage only.

Granddaughters really enjoy feeding the birds, squirrels, and other wildlife around both ours, and daughter's houses so this will be great information to pass to them.

Thanks. 

[dale560]

Sunflowers dry down usually after a hard frost. They have a 100 day maturity if I remember. Used to combine lots of acres of them. Everything about sunflowers is a challenge. Chemicals to keep them clean in field, bird control, fires during harvest or during drying operation if wet when harvested. Being they are a oil crop they do not store well so unloading from bin can be a night mare if frozen or molded and setup. Plus cold weather harvest was another setback. Twice I think we started combining in late sept but the last years we had them they wouldn’t dry down until late October. As with other crops a 1000 lb acre or around 30 bpa was common in the early 80s then people started to push 2000 lb or around 60 bpa. Lately like in the south central part of ND and northern Sd have herd 3300 or better yields. That is 100 bpa and you hear of some in the 4000 lb an acre. Oil sunflowers weigh 33 lb a bushel. There is a market for large seed oil to be dehulled. Don’t know what the dehulled are used for and confection sunflowers are 26 lbs a bushel. Confections are a contract crop , oil or bird food sunflowers have a smaller open market. 

[Ihfan4life]

23 hours ago, bitty said:

I'm wondering what experience anyone has with harvesting sunflower especially in the north east. I was asked to consider planting some for sunflower seed to sell . What are the challenges and how are they harvested , corn head ? 

We had someone approach us to grow sunflowers. They wanted the growers to commit a minimum of 20 acres, and I believe it was a several year contract.

The extension service had some experience with growing sunflower and I think custom made a header to harvest them from an old corn head. When I say custom made- it was scraps of plywood on the header to help guide and or catch the seed heads. 
The company that approached us was newly formed and we decided to pass on growing any. I don’t think they ever got anyone to grow any and soon disappeared. 
Much like the hemp fiasco of a few years ago.

[Ihfan4life]

16 hours ago, dale560 said:

Here is a picture of that big harvester in Ukraine doing sunflowers. They yield good over there but just modern practices and they could double .

How do they transport that thing?

[cm228]

11 minutes ago, Ihfan4life said:

How do they transport that thing?

Saw other videos on that machine. The tracks turn 90degs transport is sideways to normal field operation 

[twostepn2001]

A friend of mine raised sunflowers for several years. This is the header he had on his IH 915.  Built in Lubbock, Texas.

[acem]

Will an 844 corn header harvest them or will they pull through?

The few that were harvested round here were cut with a ridged header.