South Dakota is the top sunflower producing state in the nation for the second year in a row. USDA statistics show that South Dakota kept the top spot in 2014 it had gained in 2013. Coming in second was North Dakota while Texas was third.
National Sunflower Association Executive Director John Sandbakken says South Dakota farmers produced 877 million pounds of sunflowers in 2014. He says he wasn’t surprised South Dakota stayed at the top.
Sandbakken says too much rain hampered the crop in parts of both North and South Dakota.
Sandbakken is optimistic there will be an even better sunflower crop this year.
South Dakota’s planted and harvested sunflower acres were down slightly in 2014 but the yield per acre was up from 2013. Yield per acre increased from 1,534 pounds per acre to 1,679 pounds per acre.