Sunflower grows into region’s top cash crop in sales

FORT COLLINS – If you traveled the main roads and byways of Larimer and Weld counties in 1980, you would have field after field dominated by corn and sugar beets. Travel those same roads today, and you’ll see acres and acres of bright golden sunflowers, a crop that was too small to measure in 1980 but today ranks as the largest single cash crop in Northern Colorado. You’ll also see farms competing with strip malls and housing developments, new organic vegetable farms competing for niche markets and farmers coping with rising land prices and looking for ways to…