Archive Article: 2001/08/17
Sandwich crop between cereals
Richard Brown has grown sunflowers in Cambridgeshire since 1986. This year he has 63ha (156 acres) at Hill Farm, Keyston near Huntingdon.
"The crop slots in as a sunflower sandwich between cereals on chalky boulder clay to allow me to maximise first wheat opportunities," he says. "I grow four varieties, Antonil, Sanluca, Bahia and Aria, for birdseed. Yield averages 16-18cwt/acre, or just over 2t/ha, but I hope to achieve 2.3t this year. I have combined 2.5t/ha in four of the 16 years I have grown sunflowers."
Most of Hill Farms wheat is drilled before the crop is combined and last years weather-delayed sunflowers were not cut until late October. He hopes never to see such a late and difficult season again.
"Sunflowers have a low input requirement. Seed at £100/ha is the biggest single cost. This year I applied just 60kg/ha of nitrogen and no agchems. I used a tractor hoe to keep weeds down. The gross margin is the highest of all the spring alternatives."