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Thousands of sunflower acres left in the Dakotas

Thousands of sunflower acres in the Dakotas will go unharvested this year.

North Dakota State University Extension agronomist Greg Endres tells Brownfield rain and snow kept farmers out of fields much of the fall.

“We’re counting on sunflower to be a good crop for us, and those sunflower fields still out there just aren’t going to come through for us even if they’re harvested.”

He says farmers could try to harvest sunflowers in the spring, but there are many factors going against the crop including disease.

“Their stalk strength in general isn’t as good as say corn. Because their heads are up in the air, there’s a lot more potential for the heads to break off with continued winds and heavy snow. Bird damage.”

In North Dakota, barely half the sunflower acreage has been harvested.  South Dakota is 71 percent complete.

More than 85 percent of all sunflower acres in the U.S. are located in the Dakotas, Colorado, and Kansas.