Sunflower production has seen a resurgence in Saskatchewan, especially in the eastern half of the province.

Sherri Roberts, regional crop specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, says sunflower acres in the province had dropped in the last few years in favour of different crops like soybeans.

But there’s a brand new public sunflower variety called honeycomb which she says is a good oilseed crop to add to your rotation.

"The thing that makes them so wonderful is they have such a dense root system, and they can go down and get those nutrients that a lot of other crops can't get," she said. "And while they're susceptible to sclerotinia, you have to watch in your rotation where you place them, they also have the ability to scavenge moisture and nutrients that other crops don't have the ability to do. And as far as fusarium goes, they're not an issue."

Roberts adds a Saskatchewan Sunflower Field Day is being held at the Indian Head Research Farm on Thursday, where interested producers can meet researchers and learn more about different varieties of sunflowers.

"Bill May is the researcher in charge at Indian Head working with sunflowers and he's been doing a whole bunch of work on different varieties," said Roberts. "So he has a bunch of different flats. He even has some sunflowers that he brought in from Iceland - real short little variety that has some opportunities."

Roberts adds the researchers at Indian Head have also worked on genetics lining and plant density studies and salinity trials, which will be discussed at the field day.