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30 Years Ago

Saturday, February 1, 2025
filed under: Historical

        Narrow-Row Yields Pass Test in N.D. Study — “Being aware of research data showing consistent yield advantages for corn and soybeans under narrow-row planting, Stan Wolf and Burton Johnson asked themselves the logical question:  How do yields of narrow-row sunflower compare with those of its wider counterparts?
        “Their curiosity resulted in a three-year two-site study which eventually suggested this answer:  Very well.
        “Wolf, a Moorhead, Minn.-based plant breeder with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and Johnson, a research associate with the North Dakota State University Plant Sciences Department, conducted their study from 1992 to 1994 at two North Dakota locations:  Carrington, in the central part of the state, and Prosper, just west of Fargo in southeastern North Dakota.  They planted three conventional hybrids (Pioneer 6230, 6440 and 6451) in row widths of 18 and 30 inches. Each planting was replicated four times, with the plots overseeded and then thinned to 20,000 plants per acre in the six-leaf stage.  Distance between in-row plants was 10 inches in the 30-inch rows and 17 inches in the 18-inch rows.
        “The result?  When averaged across both sites and over all three years, the narrower 18-inch rows exhibited a 20 percent yield advantage:  2,061 pounds per acre versus a 1,645-pound level for the 30-inch row plantings.  The narrow rows out-yielded the wider rows in all six text environments (two locations/three years each), with the smallest advantage being 11 percent at Carrington in 1992 and the largest being a 32-percent edge at Prosper in 1993.
        “Wolf and Johnson suggest that a primary reason for the narrow-row yield advantage likely is ‘the greater equidistant arrangement between plants, which allows for greater utilization of resources and less competition for space.  This effect is evident by the reduced plant heights in the narrow rows in the highest-yielding environments and the higher seed weights in three of the six environments,’ they note.  Oil percentage was not affected by row spacing, the researchers add.”
 
        Solid Seeding: Where Does It Fit? / By Don Lilleboe — “During his 10 years as a seed company agronomist in north central and southeastern North Dakota, Bruce Due has worked with a number of producers who plant their sunflower crops under solid-seeded (i.e., narrow-row) systems.  While solid seeders definitely remain a distinct minority with the overall sunflower grower camp, their numbers do appear to be expanding — particularly in certain production pockets.  Federal crop insurance restrictions on coverage for solid-seeded sunflower (defined as that which cannot be cultivated) have kept some — but certainly not all — otherwise-interested producers from going the narrow-row route.
        “Based on his experience, Due believes there are two general categories of growers most likely to view solid-seeded sunflower as a useful option for their farming operations.
        “ ‘The first is the grower who does not have many other row crops — particularly corn.  His need to have row-crop equipment is largely determined by having sunflower in the rotation,’ Due observes.  That’s where air seeders (or ‘air drills’) play an important role.  This grower typically is already using an air seeder to plant his small grains, sunflower and other crops; or is looking at the purchase of an air seeder to replace his conventional grain drill and row-crop planter, thereby being able to seed all his crops with a single implement.
        “The second type of person who solid seeds sunflower often overlaps with the first example.  ‘It’s a person who’s looking at solid seeding as a way of saving time,’ Due says. ‘With air seeders, you typically do an incorporation of your preplant herbicide while planting your sunflower; plus, you’re also usually working with a 30- or 40-foot-wide piece of equipment rather than a 20-foot.’
        “While some producers have used standard grain drills to seed sunflower in narrow rows, Due says the practice is uncommon and not the best alternative.  ‘If the grower has no other option available, it can work; but it’s not a good method,’ he advises.  ‘The biggest problem with using a grain drill for sunflower is that the feed mechanism — the spur gear — is sized for small grains.  So when you start putting a larger seed like sunflower through those spur gears, you get a fair amount of seed damage.’ ”
 
        No-Till Success in N.W. Kansas / By Don Lilleboe — “Harlan and Keith Downing had two good reasons to be pleased in late September as they examined a recently planted wheat field on their northwestern Kansas farm.
        “First, the wheat was emerging quickly and uniformly, invigorated by the inch of water the Downing brothers had just applied via the low-energy precision application (LEPA) overhead sprinkler they had towed to the site.
        “Second, only 10 days earlier, they had harvested an excellent no-till sunflower crop — grown without irrigation — from that same field.  Those oil-type ’flowers yielded 2,722 pounds per acre (clean-seed basis), with an average oil content of 46 percent.
        “Little wonder the Downings are enthused these days about sunflower’s fit into their overall cropping rotation and, as well, into the no-till system they’ve developed for producing their sunflower and its companion crops, corn and sorghum.
        “The Downings, who farm about 20 miles northwest of Colby, have raised sunflower on and off since 1986.  That was two years after they began experimenting with no-till corn and milo production.  Though their Rawlins and Thomas County fields are not classified as highly erodible land (HEL) by the National Resource Conservation Service, they are quite prone to wind erosion.  One of their fields, in fact, butts against Sherman County — which is classified as entirely HEL.  So conserving both moisture and soil is a top priority for the Downings. . . .
        “To what do the Downing brothers attribute their outstanding dryland sunflower yields?  Superior weed control is central to the discussion.
        “ ‘Nothing grows in our fields except the crop itself,’ Harlan declares.  ‘We’ve been spraying for more years than we’ve been planting, so the weed pressure is virtually gone.’  Their major weed challenge, say the Downings, is imported kochia tumbling its way from adjacent areas onto their fields. . . .
          “No-till sunflower production has always been hampered by a lack of labeled postemergence herbicides.  That situation has not deterred the Downing brothers, however.  ‘The trick is to kill everything that’s out there before the sunflower crop emerges’ Keith stresses.”
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