Sunflowers Gain as an Oilseed Crop in the United States

Excerpts from the report: Sunflowers have been grown in the U.S. primarily for the whole seed trade. As a rule, very few were processed as an oilseed. Seed varieties were low in oil content (about 28%); for this and other reasons, sunflowers were unable to compete economically with soybeans and flaxseeds, the well-established and extensively cultivated oil-yielding crops. Recently, with the availability of high-oil content Russian varieties of seed (40-40% oil), there has been renewed interest in producing sunflowers as an oilseed crop in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. The tall-growing large-seeded sunflower varieties are usually used in the whole seed trade. The dwarf and semi-dwarf type, with small heads and higher oil content, are preferred for processing into oil. As an oilseed crop, the dwarf varieties are seed preferable since their shorter and more uniform height makes harvesting with a modified grain combine more practical. Research to increase oil content continues in the United States through breeding programs for high-oil sunflower hybrids