Harvesting Sunflower seeds

[blackrams]

My wife and I are both originally from Kansas, the Sunflower State. We both grew up with these plants growing in the wild and saw them in beautiful fields of huge flowers. They were a sight to behold. We both like them so much that every year we will till up some soil and grow some of the multi-color and some of the giant versions. She enjoys the birds the flowers bring to our home and I simply like the look of them. I always harvest the giant flower blooms and dry them for next years crop. They are beautiful and provide critters with food, are scenic and provide a privacy fence of sorts for our back yard.

But, I have often wondered what type of equipment is used by commercial sunflower farms. Some kind of special combine? I have no idea and thought I'd ask.

Rams:drink:

 

[kneedeep]

Just about any general purpose combine header will cut Sunflower but some varieties will shatter at the header and the crop will be lost before it goes through combine. There are Combine Headers designed for crops like Sunflower to reduce header loss.

combining sunflowers - Google Search

 

[D7E]

Sunflower header is a regular straight cut header with long spiked pans added in front to catch fallen seeds . The reel is replaced with a smaller diameter one . Or use an all crop corn type header.

 

[Bird]

I think I was a teenager before I ever heard of anyone planting sunflowers on purpose. I used to have to fight those things in the garden and pasture and couldn't even imagine anyone planting one.

 

[Creamer]

My wife and I are both originally from Kansas, the Sunflower State. We both grew up with these plants growing in the wild and saw them in beautiful fields of huge flowers. They were a sight to behold. We both like them so much that every year we will till up some soil and grow some of the multi-color and some of the giant versions. She enjoys the birds the flowers bring to our home and I simply like the look of them. I always harvest the giant flower blooms and dry them for next years crop. They are beautiful and provide critters with food, are scenic and provide a privacy fence of sorts for our back yard.

But, I have often wondered what type of equipment is used by commercial sunflower farms. Some kind of special combine? I have no idea and thought I'd ask.

Rams:drink:

Food for the critters - are you calling me a critter?

 

[6thgpSF]

They grow them around here to sell as bird food to such stores as T.S.C. etc. I have several species that grow every yr. Beautiful plants...russ

 

[blackrams]

Food for the critters - are you calling me a critter?

Well, if I am, I be one 2.

Most folks have heard of Peanut Brittle, ever had Sunflower Brittle?

Anyone here commercially grow Sunflowers? If you're close enough, I'd love to ride by your field. Harvest time would be an excellent time t watch the process.

Rams. :drink:

 

[Thomas]

Harvesting sunflowers...those darn gray squirrels do pretty good job.

 

[pat32rf]

We buy black oil sunflower seeds for the bird feeders but one bag will be nice and clean, the next will be full of dead leaves and broken stems. What gives?

 

[MHarryE]

We buy black oil sunflower seeds for the bird feeders but one bag will be nice and clean, the next will be full of dead leaves and broken stems. What gives?

Sunflower seeds are relatively light so it can be tough to blow the trash out in the combine without losing a lot of seed. This was a tough harvest year for us so our seed is trashy. Some packagers will bag harvest run while others will secondary clean after drying. We harvested at 13% and dried in the bin to 8% for long their storage. We'd be able to clean them a lot better now running them over a fanning mill. For a packager fanning the seed is more cost and if people will pay for the trash, more profit.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I am interested in this because it seems sunflower seeds and silage makes excellent feed for livestock. Sunflowers do really well here due to a variety of factors so I thought about trying to plant a few acres of it and seeing how the sheep do on it as a feed. I know I have to mix it with grass silage...I do know that to get the proper energy/protein ratio, but it really seemed doable.

I wished you lived closer MHarryE: I would go see how you manage your crop.

 

[MossRoad]

There's a ton of utube videos on sunflower harvest. Start here, and you'll be watching for a long, long time...

 

[blackrams]

Sunflower seeds are relatively light so it can be tough to blow the trash out in the combine without losing a lot of seed. This was a tough harvest year for us so our seed is trashy. Some packagers will bag harvest run while others will secondary clean after drying. We harvested at 13% and dried in the bin to 8% for long their storage. We'd be able to clean them a lot better now running them over a fanning mill. For a packager fanning the seed is more cost and if people will pay for the trash, more profit.

Won't pretend to fully comprehend everything you posted but as a hobbyist, don't really care . I like planting and growing sunflowers.
They make me smile......

Rams

 

[Atchuuu]

There's a ton of utube videos on sunflower harvest. Start here, and you'll be watching for a long, long time...

Interesting. Thanks for posting

 

[MHarryE]

I am interested in this because it seems sunflower seeds and silage makes excellent feed for livestock. Sunflowers do really well here due to a variety of factors so I thought about trying to plant a few acres of it and seeing how the sheep do on it as a feed. I know I have to mix it with grass silage...I do know that to get the proper energy/protein ratio, but it really seemed doable.

I wished you lived closer MHarryE: I would go see how you manage your crop.

Major problem managing is wildlife. Blackbirds are worst followed by deer and bear. Know others who have estimated 2000 pound per acre crops when seed is set but only take in 500 pounds after blackbirds take theirs. Lots of expense in seed, fertilizer, spray, but the fields are beautiful attracting people from hundreds of miles away. One of my partner's father-in-law has grown them for ages but he lives on the fertile ground part of state. We decided to try them on our not so good ground part of state this year and except for birds we did fantastic. My shoulder still aches from all the shells fired but I didn't cut the damage at all - just felt better every morning after shooting.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Major problem managing is wildlife. Blackbirds are worst followed by deer and bear. Know others who have estimated 2000 pound per acre crops when seed is set but only take in 500 pounds after blackbirds take theirs. Lots of expense in seed, fertilizer, spray, but the fields are beautiful attracting people from hundreds of miles away. One of my partner's father-in-law has grown them for ages but he lives on the fertile ground part of state. We decided to try them on our not so good ground part of state this year and except for birds we did fantastic. My shoulder still aches from all the shells fired but I didn't cut the damage at all - just felt better every morning after shooting.

I have very fertile soil so they grow really well here on the limited scale that I have done so. When I started to read that sunflower silage makes really good feed for livestock, it got my attention. I have watched a lot of videos on the harvesting of sunflowers, but that was pretty much just the harvest; I was more interested in actually knowing how to grow them. I am sure being a different crop it has its requirements and learning curve to grow well that is all. I probably would not commit a lot of acres to it at first, but would like an alternative to corn; or at least a grass silage/corn silage/sunflower silage mixture.

Too bad about the blackbirds and your sunflowers.

I have only had one predator kill on my farm in the last 10 years and it was a crow pecking the entrails out of a newly born lamb on pasture. Coyotes, crows and fox get a lot of lead here.

 

[DJ54]

I plant around 12-14 rows of black oilers, and large white stripers around my garden, to make a hedge fence to keep the deer out. I read in a gardening forum where a fellow did this, claiming a deer will not jump over something, it can not see the other side of. Being the white tail population has grown 10 fold, since I was a kid here, and wreak havoc on the garden, I decided to try it. A cheap solution, versus building a tall fence, or electric fence.

It does work..!! Deer will walk through the garden, but usually don't bother the immature plants, until the sunflowers get lush, and tall enough, they cannot see through, to see what's on the other side.

I use the planter behind one of my David Bradley 2-wheel tractors to plant them, using the sweet corn plate.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

I planted 3-4 acres of sunflowers a few years ago for the purpose of having a dove hunt. The deer ate all, and I truly mean all of the heads prior to maturity. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Never tried it again. Too much time and expense for no payoff.

 

[Creamer]

I planted 3-4 acres of sunflowers a few years ago for the purpose of having a dove hunt. The deer ate all, and I truly mean all of the heads prior to maturity. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Never tried it again. Too much time and expense for no payoff.

Did you have venison that winter? It would have been well fed.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

Did you have venison that winter? It would have been well fed.

I usually have plenty of venison. I don't hunt much anymore, but my son and grandson thin the herd pretty good every year, and I get all the meat I need.