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Flower Power
Andrea Goolsby Fall usually brings with it the look of emptiness. The once-full and leafy trees become bare branches, beautiful green lawns turn to seas of brown, and the farmer's fields, which only a few months earlier were green and thriving, become dry and brittle. But there is one farmer near McLeansboro whose fields capture the attention of passersby. The fields are radiant with yellow flowers that beam like the sunshine. The farmer is Jerry Prince, and his golden plants are sunflowers. Prince used to listen to stories from family members about raising sunflowers in the 1920s and 1930s near the tip of Southern Illinois. At that time Illinois was one of the leading producers of what was a very small crop limited mainly to bird feed. The full potential of the plant was not known until the 1970s when Soviet scientists produced a high quality oil-type plant. Soon after Prince began his experiment with what would eventually become a very profitable commodity. After six months of study and research for a secondary crop that would best utilize his land and equipment, Prince decided on sunflowers. He had been farming his 1,300-acre farm near McLeansboro, Illinois, since 1964 and had experienced both success and failure with his crops. Fluctuations led him to look for an alternative crop. He said, "The rules of the game have changed in farming; you have to investigate all possibilities now to survive. "It was a combination of those factors that helped him make the commitment to a new crop in July 1983. While soybeans have always been the traditional second crop, Prince found that sunflowers had many advantages beans did not, including a resistance to frost down to twenty-six degrees for eight hours, a resistance to cynematode (a disease that plagues soy-beans), and a high tolerance for poor soil and drought. The real secret to the success of the sunflower, however, seems to lie in its extensive root system. The tap root goes several feet into the ground. While other crops burn and wither in dry conditions, the sunflower is able to thrive. That alone makes the sunflower a promising double-crop choice for many farmers in Illinois. The sunflower's tolerance to less-than-perfect conditions became evident the first year of Prince's experiment. He purposely planted his 100-acre test plot on marginal, unfertilized ground. He believed that whatever results he got from his crop on this type of soil, that would be the worst that he could expect. He did not figure on the drought that would hit Southern Illinois that year. The harvest left corn standing in the fields, and area soybean yields running three to five bushels per acre. Compared to these statistics, Prince was very impressed by his flowers' yield range of 900 to 1600 pounds per acre. He was able to sell his crop to buyers and markets for use as bird feed, oil, meal, and for consumer use. Considering the soil on which they were planted and the growing season they had endured, his sunflower crop had proven profitable. Two types of sunflowers are produced in Illinois. These types are the oil and the non-oil. One use for the oil type, which is gaining popularity, is cooking oil. Sunflower oil is lower in cholesterol than vegetable oil, and it has a longer shelf life and a better whipping quality. Restaurants use it because it has a high smoke point, which means it can be heated to higher temperatures than other oils without smoking. The seeds themselves are edible and are often sold to be roasted, salted, and eaten. They can also be roasted and then ground and used as a coffee substitute. The sunflower's use as a fuel source is also increasing. Prince said, "You'll probably see a lot more utilized as a fuel source in third world countries. I think tremendous potential is there. It's an excellent source of energy." Sunflowers will likely never replace corn or soybeans as a primary crop, but their popularity will continue to grow as a secondary crop. Their ability to withstand even the harshest of mother nature's elements make them a smart and logical choice. Prince said of the sunflower, "It's another way to try and make a profit. And that's what it's all about."— [From Don Lilleboe, "Sunflower Impresses Drought-Hit Illinoisan," The Sunflower (Ap.-May 1984); Laurie Ray, "The Right Doublecrop Pays Off," Prairie Farmer (June 2, 1984); Tina Ross, "Sunflowers Are Proving to Be Stable Secondary Crop," The Evansville Courier and Press, Sept. 4, 1983; Nat Williams, "Farmer's Gamble on Sunflowers Pays Off," McLeansboro Times-Leader, Sept. 15, 1983.]
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