Thunder Seed introduces three new sunflower varieties

Thunder Seed recently introduced three new sunflower varieties to its seed lineup. The new varieties are all Clearfield® hybrids, which makes them tolerant to Beyond® herbicide for excellent weed control.

 

“We’re excited about the opportunity to offer sunflowers to our growers,” said Larry Mueller, executive sales director for Thunder Seed. “With these varieties, our customers will be able to grow sunflowers for the high-oleic and NuSun® markets.”

 

The new varieties have several traits that make them well-suited to the soils of the upper Midwest. The early-maturing 35H92 produces high-oleic oil quality. It performs well in all sunflower-growing regions and has excellent disease resistance. The medium-maturing 42H94 also produces high-oleic oil quality and offers excellent yield potential and stalk quality.

 

For the NuSun® market, Thunder Seed’s medium-maturing 11N94 has excellent tolerance to sclerotinia head rot as well as strong stalks and roots. In addition, all three varieties are resistant to several races of downy mildew, which can stunt sunflowers’ growth and significantly reduce yields.

 

Thunder Seed has been developing and selling grain corn, silage corn and soybean seed for more than 20 years. Mueller said the company added sunflowers to its lineup to meet customer demand.

 

“When it comes to yield and oil content, we know that our varieties will be competitive with any other product on the market,” Mueller said. “Our customers have seen great results in their fields with our corn and soybean varieties. Now, we can offer them that same success with sunflowers.”