Nominations Open for Inaugural Alberta Grains Board

Sep 21, 2023

Nominations are open for the Alberta Grains, the newly named, amalgamated Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions, board of directors, a Sept. 19 news release said. Farmers from across all six growing regions in the province can be nominated to run for one of twelve open director positions, comprised of two from each region.

“All it takes to be a director is a good head on your shoulders, and a willingness to speak up and strive for positive change, no matter how steep the roadblocks,” Tara Sawyer, interim chair for Alberta Grains, said in the release.

Directors lead Alberta Grains and advise on its priorities of research, agronomic extension, government relations and policy, national and international markets, and the FarmCash cash advance program, while supporting the commission’s governance, events and industry-focused publications, the release said.

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Video: How American Farmers Harvest 1.15 Billion Pounds of Sunflowers

Across the open plains of North Dakota and South Dakota, sunflower fields turn the American landscape into a sea of gold. In this farming documentary, we go inside modern sunflower farming to see how farmers plant, grow, harvest, clean, dry, process, and transform sunflower seeds into valuable products used every day.

In 2024, American farmers harvested about 1.15 billion pounds of sunflowers. This video follows the full journey from warm spring planting to combine harvesting, seed cleaning, storage, oil extraction, refining, roasting, packaging, and animal feed production.

You will see how sunflower seeds are processed into cooking oil, roasted snacks, bakery ingredients, birdseed, livestock feed, and useful byproducts. From golden fields to modern processing plants, this is the story of how a beautiful flower becomes one of America’s important oilseed crops.

Watch until the end to discover how sunflower farming connects farmers, machines, factories, food production, and sustainable agriculture.