Grainseed is urging growers to consider sunflowers this season, following the decline in the cropped area of wheat, barley and oilseed rape due to the wet conditions.
Edward Stanford, sunflower expert for the firm, said: “Sunflowers are a straight-forward crop to grow with few inputs (variable cost is just £276/hectare) and being drilled from 10th April onwards allows growers a little more time to consider their options. We also know that with climate change and increasing temperatures, the suitable geographic area has already expanded well northwards.”
The variety Es Bella, sold by United Oilseeds, is the best-selling variety of sunflowers in the UK and Edward believes that the market for the crop will flourish in the next five years. United Oilseeds released the table below, calculating the gross margins of spring cropping options for growers.
| £ per tonne | Yield t/ha | Output £/ha | Variable Costs £/ha | Gross Margin £/ha | |
| Spring Wheat | 220 | 6 | 1,320 | 613 | 707 |
| Spring Oats | 185 | 5.6 | 1,036 | 381 | 655 |
| Sunflowers | 400 | 2.2 | 880 | 276 | 604 |
| Spring OSR | 394.32 | 2.4 | 946.4 | 375 | 571.4 |
| Spring Beans | 225 | 4 | 900 | 390 | 519 |
| Spring Linseed | 420 | 2 | 840 | 328 | 512 |
Edward added that some actions under the Sustainable Farming Incentive could add value to the crop, including IPM4 – no insecticide on the crop – which pays £45 per hectare.
“Bella is an early maturing high yielding variety that performs well in trials and commercially in England. It has good standing ability, high dry matter, high oil content of 48-50% and excellent disease resistance.”
For more information go to www.grainseed.co.uk