You might have noticed the field of flowers growing along Sam Noble Parkway, across the road from the Noble Research Institute's main campus. These flowers are a commercial oil seed variety of sunflower, which farmers grow for a crop that is used for sunflower oil.
We are growing these sunflowers as a cover crop and as a border around cover crop research plots that are planted in the center of the field.
As a cover crop, these sunflowers are providing several benefits such as diversifying the crop rotation, providing food for bees and other pollinators, providing a strong taproot to break hard soil layers, and scavenging and recycling soil nutrients. Just to name a few.
What to Know if You Stop by the Field
If you want to visit the sunflowers, please pull in either at the driveway at the east end of the field (goes to Noble's Research Park) or at the driveway at the west end of the field (used to go to a house). Do not use the pull-in that dead-ends at the edge of the field since there is nowhere to turn around there and it is less safe to back out onto the highway.
Do not drive in, on or across the field. Try to limit activity to the edge of the field.
Pictures can be taken for personal use only and not for any type of commercial or for-hire purposes.
Noble Research Institute, LLC (www.noble.org) is an independent nonprofit agricultural research organization dedicated to delivering solutions to great agricultural challenges. Headquartered in Ardmore, Oklahoma, Noble’s goal is to achieve land stewardship for improved soil health in grazing animal production with lasting producer profitability. Achievement of this goal will be measured by farmers and ranchers profitably regenerating hundreds of millions of acres of U.S. grazing lands. Noble aims to remove, mitigate or help producers avoid the barriers that deter the lasting use of regenerative, profitable land management practices in grazing animal production.
Researchers, consultants, educators and ranch staff work together to give farmers and ranchers the skills and tools to regenerate the land in a profitable manner. Noble researchers and educators seek and deliver answers to producer questions concerning regenerative management of pasture and range environments, wildlife, pecan production, and livestock production. Regenerative management recognizes that each decision made on the ranch impacts the interactions of the soil, plants, water, animals and producers. Noble’s 14,000 acres of working ranch lands provide a living laboratory on which to demonstrate and practice regenerative principles and ideas to deliver value to farmers and ranchers across the U.S.
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