Sunflower Crop Nearing Completion

Sep 10, 2019

Sunflower growers in Manitoba are preparing for harvest.

Ben Friesen, with Scoular Canada, gave us an update.

"It's getting into that really critical stage for them and right now most of the sunflowers are in the R8 stage," he said. "The back of the heads are starting to turn yellow definitely. They're definitely not quite physiologically mature. We're hoping to get some bigger seed size and a little bit more bushel weight out of them right now. They did get enough moisture already a week or so ago."

Friesen says farmers are looking for sunshine and dry air going forward, although rain seems to be in the forecast for much of the week. He adds frost is not a concern for sunflowers, which are able to handle temperatures right around or just below freezing.

Desiccation will get underway shortly, with harvest expected to start early in October.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.