Dedicated producers shift focus to soil conservation

Dec 29, 2022

It’s hard work but at the end of the day, soil conservationist farmers in southern Saskatchewan are reaping the benefits of their research, networking and soil improvements.

It has been a long time coming for soil health efforts at Box H Farm, but Laura Hoimyr sees even more improvements that can be made on her and her husband’s 250 herd cow/calf cattle farm.

Fifteen years ago, the farming couple knew they wanted more out of their conventional grazing operation down near Gladmar and started making a conscious effort to make soil care a priority.

Perennial grazing with native and forage grasses seemed a better fit than throwing money into new equipment and fighting with the marginal acres they had, Hoimyr told farmnewsNOW. Now intensified rotational grazing has become their standard practice in order to have sufficient periods of rest for both the soil and the greenery as well as low levels of cattle traffic to withstand compaction.

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Video: How American Farmers Harvest 1.15 Billion Pounds of Sunflowers

Across the open plains of North Dakota and South Dakota, sunflower fields turn the American landscape into a sea of gold. In this farming documentary, we go inside modern sunflower farming to see how farmers plant, grow, harvest, clean, dry, process, and transform sunflower seeds into valuable products used every day.

In 2024, American farmers harvested about 1.15 billion pounds of sunflowers. This video follows the full journey from warm spring planting to combine harvesting, seed cleaning, storage, oil extraction, refining, roasting, packaging, and animal feed production.

You will see how sunflower seeds are processed into cooking oil, roasted snacks, bakery ingredients, birdseed, livestock feed, and useful byproducts. From golden fields to modern processing plants, this is the story of how a beautiful flower becomes one of America’s important oilseed crops.

Watch until the end to discover how sunflower farming connects farmers, machines, factories, food production, and sustainable agriculture.