The Citizen, 1995-03-22, Page 28In bloom
This field in early August featured sunflowers as far as the
eye could see. The healthy sunflowers reached an
average height of seven metres before they were
harvested in October.
1/4" x 2-3/4"
266
Reg. 2.99 1075008
Cultivator
Sweeps
1 19
Reg. 1.45 10.74808
• 40 x 215 x 6rnm
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Listowel, Ontario.
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M.P.P. Huron
Constituency Office
19 Victoria Street, Clinton, NOM 1 LO
519-482-3132
1-800-668-9320
Monday - Friday
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
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PAGE A8. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1995.
+ +++ + + + + + + + + + + + A GRICULTURE f95 + :.:..:• + + +
By April Bromley
For the past two summers now
an unusual crop has caught the
attention of many local residents.
Growing a healthy crop of sun-
flowers has been the main objective
of Londesboro Seed Plant owner
Bob Szusz. With the help of his
friend, Roger Cunningham, Mr.
Szusz has been working on an
experiment to successfully grow
this alternative crop in the region.
"He had the land, and I had the
facilities," explains Mr. Szusz.
Cleaning facilities were necessary
for a healthy crop, he says.
The two men combined their
resources in order to plant the sun-
flowers.
He adds that because sunflowers
are a relatively new crop in the area
the project was very experimental.
"It was a lot of trial and error
because there was so little informa-
tion available," he says.
Their first crop was planted and
harvested in 1993, although Mr.
Szusz admits that initially there
were a lot of problems. "It was our
first year, our experimental year, so
we made a few mistakes," he
explains. According to Mr. Szusz
their biggest blunder was the use of
fertilizer on the crop, which seemed
to hinder the drying down of the
flowers in the fall.
Last year they made a second
attempt at planting the sunflowers,
with much better results. Mr. Szusz
says that the process began by
working a Treflan spray into the
field. This had to be done before
the seeds were planted because it
would have become impossible to
spray the sunflowers, which had an
average height of seven feet. "Once
the flowers started growing we
couldn't go down the rows to spray
becaase the leaves were so big."
Mr. Szusz says that five acres of
seeds were planted on May 14
with a regular corn planter. The
input cost for planting was approxi-
mately $30 per acre. He adds that
they chose not to use any fertilizer
for the second crop.
"During the growing season we
would inspect the fields every two
weeks, to make sure there were no
signs of disease or bug problems,"
says Mr. Szusz. Fortunately, they
did not experience any such prob-
lems. "Everything went really well;
the variety we grew was the most
resistant to disease."
He says that one of the benefits
of growing sunflowers is that they
grow the best on poor quality land.
"Take the worst land that you have
and sunflowers seem to grow the
best on it."
Mr. Szusz has also learned that
weather plays a very important part
in growing sunflowers. As their
name suggests, they definitely need
sun. "You don't have to have a lot
of hot weather; as long as the sun is
there the flowers will grow," he
says.
There are two varieties of sun-
flowers: the striped, and the black
oil. "We chose the striped because
they seem to be a little easier to
grow, with a lot less problems, " he
explains. "Our main reason for
growing this type is for birdseed.'t,
He adds that there is a large market
in the region for bird seed.
The flowers were harvested in
October without any major difficul-
ties, he says. A row crop head
designed for sunflowers and soy-
beans had to be used on the com-
bine. "It was a slow process, it took
us about seven hours to harvest five
acres," he says.
Mr. Szusz and his partner pro-
duced 1,400 pounds of finished
seed per acre. The seeds were then
sold to retailers as well as from the
Lodnesboro store.
The net profit, he says, was
approximately $200 an acre. "It
worked out to be a reasonable
return on our investment." ,
Despite the profit, he says that
they will wait another year before
planting another crop. "There
seems to be more interest in Huron
County for the black oil sunflow-
ers, " he says. Black oil sunflowers
can be sold as birdseed, as well as
commercial sunflower oil, he
explains.
After this new variety has been
researched more carefully he plans
to pick up his experiment once
again. "In 1996, hopefully we'll
have enough information that we
can try some of the black oil sun-
flowers," he says, adding that this
will depend greatly on the market.
However, Mr. Szusz doesn't rule
out the possibility of returning to
the striped variety in future years.
"A lot of the feed companies are
starting to use the striped sunflow-
ers in feed rations for their live:-
stock, so there could be a market
coming back in."
Whatever the variety, Mr. Szusz
has not ruled out sunflowers as an
alternative crop for farmers.
Farmers Are Injured On The Job
Farming has the highest incidence
of disabling injuries of all
industries in Canada, at 58 per
1,000 workers.
Londesboro businessman
grows alternative crop