TITLE:

             Dryland Commercial NuSun Sunflower Variety Trial at AG-CARES, Lamesa, TX, 2001

             (Oil analysis not yet complete—please contact after March 1 for full report.)

AUTHORS:

Calvin Trostle, Texas Cooperative Extension-Lubbock, c-trostle@tamu.edu,

(806) 746-6101

METHODS AND PROCEDURES:

Soil Type:                Amarillo fine sandy loam

Planting:                  June 29, 2001 on 40” rows

Previous Crop:        Cotton

Seeding Rate:          Lowest seed drop possible (about 21,000 seeds/acre with vacuum planter) thinned by hand to 11,000-12,000 two weeks after emergence.

Plot Set-up:             Two two-row strips (four plots) per hybrid, approximately 130’ long

Harvest Area:          Four replicates, two 40-inch rows X 40’ each.

Fertilizer:                 None

Herbicide:               None

Insecticide:              None (see discussion notes about spraying sunflower head moth)

Rainfall:                  See Lamesa area summary elsewhere in the AG-CARES report, 2.02” for June 29-Sept. 26

Date Harvested:       September 26, 2001

Number of Entries:  Six

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Sunflower production is not common south of Lubbock in the Texas South Plains. New markets for oilseed sunflower opened in Lubbock in 2001. Southern Cotton Oil has decided not to renew for 2002, but Red River Commodities opened a permanent birdfood plant in Lubbock, which is targeting up to 30,000 acres of production for processing. To complement NuSun mid-oleic sunflower hybrid testing at TAES-Halfway, a trial among six Triumph Seed and Pioneer Hi-Bred hybrids was planted on the AG-CARES dryland facility late in June with minimal moisture.

The plant population was thinned to about 11,000 to 12,000 plants per foot as the John Deere air-vacuum planter did not have a sunflower disk (a cotton disk was used at the lowest possible seed drop, but still about 75% more than desired). A recommended seed drop for the conditions at planting would have been about 13,000-14,000 seeds/A (that’s about 1 seed per foot!). At thinning, it was difficult to cull healthy plants, but we are reminded of the goal in the dryland cropping for an area such as Dawson Co.: “We want to make a crop, not a mistake.” The mistake is having too many plants for dry conditions and thus the stand was thinned to fit these poor moisture conditions.

In contrast to the failure of the AG-CARES dryland sorghum, which was planted the day before, the sunflower taproot penetrated into deep soil moisture, and stands held up well. Initial flowering would have occurred after the heat abated somewhat in mid August.

A note about sunflower head moth spraying. We were unable to get the field sprayed in time for adequate head moth pressure, which was heavy. This would be considered an agronomic cardinal sin, and there was damage on the heads with limited Rhizopus head rot, the opportunistic fungal infection that follows head moth larval activity in the head. Hot weather surely curtailed the fungus. Growers cannot normally expect to produce sunflowers profitably without spraying for sunflower head moth.

Reported yields reflect heavy bird damage, particularly on the Pioneer hybrids where the head remained upright in contrast to Triumph lines which turn down, particularly Triumph 652 where the head essentially faced the ground. Estimates were made on bird damage losses, then calculated according to potential yield apart from bird loss damage. Agronomic production, adjusted for bird damage, averaged 782 lbs./A. Actual harvest losses due to bird damage ranged from only 10 lbs./A to 210 lbs./A (a hybrid, which remained mostly, erect thus easy for birds to feed on). Measure to minimize bird loss damage would include combining up to one week sooner than we harvested. Bird problems are common when near town, as the plots were at the south end of the dryland facility. Market prices at the time of harvest were $7.45/cwt with an LDP of $1.72. No oil premium is given for oilseed sunflower in the birdfood market. In light of the minimal rainfall received during the growing season, we attribute the seed production to use of deep soil moisture in the profile below 1’.

Table 1. NuSun mid-oleic sunflower hybrid trial at AG-CARES, Dawson Co., Texas, 2001.

Additional data from Texas South Plains research at TAES-Halfway will be available in March. For additional information please contact your county extension office or Calvin Trostle for a copy of “Common Concerns in West Texas Sunflower Production and Ways to Solve Them,” or visit the Texas A&M-Lubbock website for several sunflower resources at http://lubbock.tamu.edu