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Union County sunflower seeds grow on world stage
Farmers export seed
for fields in Europe,
Middle East
By DICK MASON
The Observer
U
NION COUNTY —
The outlook for sun-
flower seed crops in
Union County appears
solid this spring.
Relatively
warm
spring
weather means farmers will
begin planting their crops in mid
April, about two weeks earlier
than in 2020 when conditions
were colder and wetter, said Rob
Beck, the owner of Alicel Feed
and Seed.
The earlier planting is a plus
because it means sunflower seeds
could be harvested in late Sep-
tember, when the weather is nor-
mally dry and warm. When sun-
flowers are harvested in October
there is a much greater risk that
bad weather could greatly impede
the process, Beck said.
A total of 1,800 acres of sun-
flowers are expected to be grown
in Union County this year by
about seven growers. All of the
growers are subcontractors of
Alicel Feed and Seed, which has
contracts with multinational com-
panies it provides the seeds to.
Union County’s sunflower
seed growers include Justin Hef-
fernan of North Powder. Heffer-
nan enjoys raising sunflowers,
but he knows they will cause him
early morning anxiety in Septem-
ber. He said elk often feed on his
sunflowers long before sunrise.
“Elk are a big problem,” Hef-
fernan said.
Especially between midnight
and 4 a.m.
“That is when they come down
to eat breakfast,” Heffernan said,
noting that elk find the oil in
the mature heads of sunflowers
irresistible.
To negate this threat, Heffer-
Eric Valentine/Contributed Photo
A sunflower field in the Grande Ronde Valley, with Mount Emily in the background.
nan obtains a permit from the
state allowing him to have some-
one lightly haze any elk that
approach his sunflower field.
Noises are made to scare the elk
away. The hazing is effective, but
it takes a toll.
“You have to have someone up
all night,” said Heffernan, who
works closely with the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
when planning hazing.
Sunflowers
are
vulnera-
ble to elk, but they can with-
stand weather events such as hail
storms because of protective tis-
sue, Heffernan said. He has seen
many sunflower plants have large
holes in their leaves from hail,
but that has not prevented the
plants from growing and produc-
ing seeds.
The ability to withstand hail is
a strength that endears sunflow-
ers to farmers such as Heffernan
Justin Heffernan/Contributed Photo
Sunflowers in bloom in the North Powder Valley, with the Elkhorn Moun-
tains in the background.
because there is little they can do
to protect crops from this natural
phenomenon.
“Hail can humble any farmer,”
Heffernan said.
Sunflowers also hold up well
against heavy rain, especially in
the fall. Beck noted in the fall
sunflowers tend to face down-
ward from their stalks, thus the
seeds are not hit by rain.
Another plus is that little needs
to be done to protect sunflower
plants from weeds once the plants
are mature. Heffernan said sun-
flowers’ large leaves block sun-
light from the area around them.
“The shade canopy prevents
weeds from growing,” he said.
Sunflowers also are easy on
the irrigation budget because
they need relatively little water.
“I get to use more water for
other crops,” Heffernan said.
Watching sunflower plants
develop is an interesting expe-
rience for many because of how
they react to the sun, Heffernan
said. Some varieties when young
begin the day facing east but then
turn west as they follow the sun’s
journey across the sky.
“They are like a sundial,” Hef-
fernan said.
The plants stop following the
sun when they get older, he said,
because their cell tissue hardens.
Much of the sunflower seed
Heffernan and other farmers
grow in Union County ends up in
Europe and the Middle East after
Alicel Feed and Seed provides
the product to multinational com-
panies, Beck said.
The locally grown seeds are
then used to grow more sunflow-
ers, rather than turned into oil or
other products.
Union County seeds will
produce plants that will create
between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds
of sunflower seed per acre.
Farmers have been growing
sunflowers in Union County for
about two decades, and Beck
said he believes the crop has a
solid future here. He credited the
bright outlook to the quality of
people working in agriculture.
“We have a lot of very good
farmers,” Beck said.
He noted many have grown
other seed crops here. This means
they understand the seed certifi-
cation process, he said, and how
to create “export-quality” seed.