Australia
April 21, 2008
A trial on the Gowlett family’s
Eldorado property at Capella aims to measure the yield and oil
variation of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and birdseed
sunflower varieties between skip row and solid configurations in
Central Queensland.
A summer crops team from
Pacific Seeds planted the trial, one of a number sown in
sunflower production areas of Queensland and northern New South
Wales as part of an industry campaign to boost production and
profitability of sunflower production.
According to Pacific Seeds Toowoomba-based Summer Crop Business
Manager, Maree Crawford, the company has joined the
Australian Oilseeds
Federation (AOF) and the
Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in
supporting the Better Sunflowers project.
The project’s aims are to identify and provide best management
practices, support growers with demonstration sites and
communication activities, and ensure industry feedback and
ownership of the project.
“The sunflower industry relies on collaborative research like
the trial at Capella to provide a good platform of information
to growers, so they can make informed decisions when
opportunities arise,” Ms Crawford said.
“As a major stakeholder in the grains industry, Pacific Seeds
recognises the importance of research like this and we were keen
to assist the project.
“The trial on Eldorado consists of the monounsaturated hybrid
Hyoleic 41 , polyunsaturated Hysun 38 and 39 and birdseed hybrid
Sunbird 7 varieties, with Hysun 39 the standard for the trial.”
“The crop was planted on March 5 at a rate of 38,000 seeds to
the hectare, using the specifically designed Pacific Seeds
Research Monosem planter.
“We fertilized at planting, with 40 kilograms to the hectare of
zinc-based Starter fertilizer and 80 kilograms of urea.”
Ms Crawford said the trial was on a Downs type soil, planted
zero till dryland into a paddock fallowed from wheat in 2007.
There was 90 centimetres of stored moisture at sowing.
Initially Mr Gowlett had selected the paddock for sorghum, but
continued wet weather circumvented that plan and he and Pacific
Seeds had gone with sunflower as a better late planting option.
“While Pacific Seeds has a number of other sunflower trial plots
in Central Queensland this year, we expect to hold a grower
field day at the Eldorado site before the trial there is
harvested in August,’ Ms Crawford said.
Industry estimates are that 7000 hectares of sunflowers have
been planted in Central Queensland this summer season, with
growers driven by an attractive price and an ideal opportunity
planting window after sorghum.
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