Big 'easy' -- Sunflower industry looks to science to compete

Jul 6, 2009      Agweek

Mikkel Pates

Jun. 30, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- ALEXANDRIA, Minn. -- The sunflower industry is locked in an increasing struggle to compete with other crops -- especially corn and soybeans -- to keep its acreage share, in a shifting world economy.

To compete, sunflower producers are increasing their focus on research, and industry officials are thinking -- among other things -- about whether genetic modifications could make the crop easier for growers to produce.

Members discussed these issues and more at the National Sunflower Association annual summer seminar, this year held in Alexandria, Minn.

Among other things, they kicked tires on some new research-scale equipment. The organization has worked to replace the planter, tractor and combine system for use by the sunflower research unit for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Fargo, N.D.

The three machines totaled about $500,000.

The new unit has the latest GPS technology to expand research on things like drought, beyond the traditional areas close to Fargo.

Research may be a key to meeting some of the challenges.

A confection sunflower panel at the event brought a laundry list of the crop's bugaboos, identified by growers -- blackbird depredation; extra care in monitoring, storage and handling; insect and disease control, among them.

Future technology Still, some farmers are reluctant to grow them, even with significant premiums, says Robert Majkrzak, president and chief executive officer of Red River Commodities in Fargo.

"We have to solve the 'easy' side of the sunflower," he says, noting that confection growers also have problems with seed size and shape, as well as grading and contract issues.

Jay Schuler, with the Giant Seeds companies in Breckenridge, Minn., says one piece of good news is that consumers in the current economic recession have not cut back on snack products such as sunflowers as officials had feared.

Schuler's bigger fear is that corn and soybeans, aided by genetic modifications and traits that make raising them easier, will continue to cut into sunflower prospects -- especially if they get drought resistance. He says Cass County, N.D., has seen a 92 percent increase in corn yields in 20 years, while sunflower yields there were flat.

Jim Gerdes, a breeder with Mycogen Seeds in Breckenridge, says that if genetically modified organisms become a reality in oilseeds, he definitely sees them coming in confections.

Steve Knapp, a professor of plant breeding and genomics at the University of Georgia in Athens, says there are efforts under way to map the genome of sunflower, which could help the crop level the playing field with corn and soybeans, which have more economic "muscle" behind their efforts.

Genetic modification on sunflower work has been seeing some impressive investments, with some $17 mllion raised in the last year. Among the big participants in Knapp's projects include Genome Canada, which has committed $7.7 million to the project, and the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program, at $8.6 million.

Among other things, Knapp is looking to silverleaf sunflower, native to Texas, for potential for drought resistance and at other projects that look at sunflowers as a possible source of biomass for fuel.

Knapp, who started his scientific career on oilseeds in Oregon before moving to Georgia, says global climate change and energy demands from an increasing world population are pointing to the need for a second "green revolution" to double production, but he asks, "if we double production, what's next?"

Current technology On a more immediate technology front, Bayer CropScience officials are talking up the company's new "Idol Sunflower System" as the key to protect crops from downy mildew. Attendees of the event found their room keycards decorated with Idol advertising.

Phil Gibson, the company's seed treatment product manager, says he is using the NSA event to talk to seed companies about making the product available on seed in 2010.

"It'll be competitively priced, again, with the advantage of downy mildew protection," he says.

Gibson says the package includes five items -- three fungicides (Vortex, Allegiance and the new Idol), an insecticide (Gaucho), a seed system "finisher," or binder, and then a seed colorant.

The company has a five-year plan for the product, but will promote it nationally in the sunflower states. Gibson could say only that the cost of bringing the product to market is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Looking ahead Tom Mielke, editor of a German-based Oil World, an independent forecasting service for oilseeds, oils and meals, is bullish about the future of oilseeds.

He says world oilseeds stocks, all linked with sunflowers, are in a critically low position -- especially in soybeans and that summer weather crises are possible and perhaps likely.

U.S. farmers have been lulled into an economic crisis mentality, indicating demand is plummeting, but demand still is there.

"The recession had a demand response. It slowed the increase, but there's still an increase," he says Many consumers have cut waste and have controlled their inventories.

Among other things, Mielke says the global market is struggling to increase production oilseed production sufficiently to keep up with demand coming from the biofuel sector.

Extra demand came from government directives and mandates that started three years ago. The Brazilian government, for example, increased mandatory mixing from the current 3 percent to 4 percent at the beginning of July.

In 2008, world consumption of oils and fats committed for biofuel was 13 million tons. That's only 8 percent of world consumption, but it is large enough to create an imbalance.

At the same time, food consumption is increasing.

Global oil seed stocks are critically low, particularly in soybeans.

Part of that is a result of recent drought in Argentina, with a 20 million-ton decline in South American production this year. Stocks at the end of August will be at such low levels that the scarcity will extend to 2010.

Mielke predicts the world may face trouble if it doesn't coordinate its national energy policies.

"There may be losers out there, which is what highlights this food and fuel debate," Mielke says.

He says the policies can't hurt the interests of consumers in the developing world.

Mielke thinks biodiesel fuels are here to stay, but governments need to create "in-built stablilizers" to shift supplies to from fuel to food in times of shortage. Currently, biofuel quotas are in place independent of the price, and rationing happens only on the food side.

He points to Europe as an example.

"We boosted European biodiesel production to around 8 million tons, and it had an effect on the global market by raising imports," he says.

Two-thirds of the growth came from imports. Meanwhile, the Argentines, Brazilians and Malaysians turn more of their production to domestic production, meaning less available on the world market.

European markets say they don't want genetically modified crops, Mielke says, but use them more than they admit.

"Nobody tests," he says. "We are eating GM stuff, in everything, and we still discuss it as if we had an option."

He says the European poultry production market would be severely affected if a true GM ban were enforced. If it was truly excluded, European poultry probably would be grown elsewhere, where GM feed is legal.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0012-36270815

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