The goal of commercialization is to make Silflower a viable crop for farmers. This includes:
- Improved yield and quality
- Better harvesting techniques
- Establishing a market
Mechanical Harvesting Trial and Error
Wintersteiger Combine:
Initial attempts at plot level harvesting in Silflower fields was done with the same Wintersteiger combine we use for barley and oats. The Wintersteiger never worked well as it was easily clogged by the stems & sticks that come along with harvesting Silflower as a full plant.
Street Sweeper:
So how can we avoid the "Stems & Sticks" problem? Let's try harvesting just the heads from the top.
Our next test was to harvest with a street sweeper. The concept: run the street sweeper with the arm lifted and use the brush to knock seeds off to be sucked into the sweeper's vacuum. It worked, but there was some seed loss.
Flail Vac:
Think of the Flail Vac as a controlled version of the street sweeper.
Wintersteiger Combine
Commercialization with Forever Green Initiative
The Commercialization team at the Forever Green Initiative is working to determine the best market paths for Silflower.