California Sunflower Seed Hybrid Development

While most of the country's sunflower crop is grown and produced in the Midwest, a majority of the sunflower seed is actually produced in the Pacific Northwest. Executive Director, John Sandbakken explains why the California region is ideal for sunflower seed production.

“What you want to have for hybrid seed production is you want to be in a place where you know this the seeds can't cross pollinate with other sunflowers. And those regions you know, they have real specific rules as to what you can plant within a so many mile radius of all the different fields. And it's, it just really segregates out the crop really nice, because I had hoped not a producer, neither is Washington, and the crops that that surround sunflower really wouldn't affect, you know, it as far as pollinating it, and, you know, taking away some of the traits that the plant would normally have. So it just those reasons work out well, the climate is, is really good. It means they're drier climates, where they plan them, so we don't have disease issues. You know, when they're being produced. It just really it's a win win situation for that whole region.”

John Sandbakken with the National sunflower Association, and according to a medium term fertilizer outlook report by the International fertilizer Association, consumption is forecast to reach 203 point 7 million metric tons of nutrients in 2024 that is slightly above the previous record reached in 2020.