MarketsFarm — With most of Manitoba’s sunflower harvest believed to be almost complete for 2023, yields have proven to be better than expected, according to Dennis Lange at Manitoba Agriculture.
“I’ve heard good comments from some in the industry that the sunflower crop looks pretty good this year,” Lange said, noting Manitoba yields were estimated at 2,500 to 2,800 pounds per acre.
Earlier this fall, those yields came in at 2,000 to 2,400 lbs./ac., which was better than the forecast for 1,990 from Statistics Canada.
“Before the snow about three weeks ago, we still had a little way to go,” Lange said of the provincial sunflower harvest. “Most parts of the central region were finished up. There was still some to go in the eastern region, up in the Interlake, and the southwest.”
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When Manitoba Agriculture published it last crop report of 2023, on Oct. 24, it listed the sunflower harvest at 58 per cent complete provincewide. At that time, 80 per cent of sunflowers in the central region had been combined with 60 per cent each in the eastern and Interlake regions, while 35 per cent was harvested in the southwest.
With decent weather lately for southern Manitoba, Lange placed the sunflower harvest at around 95 per cent complete, the Interlake still somewhat behind.
“They were delayed moreso from other crops. Trying to get some canola off, some of the late cereals, and finishing up the corn,” he said.
Morgan Cott, agronomy extension specialist with the Manitoba Crop Alliance, said some growers might leave part of their sunflower crop in the field over winter, then combine it in the spring.
“They’re dried down enough,” she said, noting at this point it doesn’t matter if the sunflowers are still in the field or stored in grain bins.
“As long there hasn’t been some weird incident where it wasn’t dry enough with the first frost,” Cott added, stating that some moisture in sunflowers during a September frost could lead to issues later.
StatCan in September forecast 77,700 tonnes of sunflowers to be produced in Canada in 2023-24. However, the crop alliance said that could reach upward to 85,000 to 90,000 tonnes, given improved yields.
Manitoba grows nearly all of Canada’s sunflowers, producing 95.6 per cent of Canada’s crop in 2023, with the remainder this year grown in Alberta, according to StatCan.
Total sunflower output in 2022 came in at 84,054 tonnes, a far distance from the record sunflower crop of 217,800 tonnes in 1979.
StatCan is set to publish its survey-based production report on Dec. 4.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
