Article Archives

Sunflower Briefs

Sunday, January 1, 2023
filed under: Sunflower Briefs

NSA Board of Directors Elects Officers

Brighton, Colo., producer Tom Kirkmeyer is the new president of the National Sunflower Association Board of Directors.   He was elected at the board’s early winter meeting held in Bismarck, N.D.
        Kirkmeyer replaced Lemmon, S.D., producer Lance Hourigan as president. Hourigan now serves as NSA board chairman. Onida, S.D., grower Chuck Todd was elected as NSA board first vice president and Josh Greff, producer from Regent, N.D., as second vice president. Lacey Zahradka of Archer Daniels Midland was re-elected as the NSA secretary/treasurer.
        Former NSA president and chairman Clark Coleman of Bismarck remains a board member.

Wall Elected as New NSA Board Member

Jed Wall was elected to represent the hybrid seed industry on the NSA Board of Directors during the board’s early winter meeting. Wall currently serves as a field sales manager for Nuseed, a subsidiary of Nufarm Chemical. Prior to joining Nuseed, he was sunflower business development lead for Legend Seeds. Wall has over 26 years of experience in the sunflower industry, bringing with him significant knowledge on the North American sunflower business.
        Wall resides in Wahpeton, N.D., where he serves as a volunteer for a number of local organizations giving back to agricultural education. He currently serves as treasurer for Farm Rescue, an organization dedicated to supporting farm families in need.

2023 NSA Research Forum Is January 11-12
        Registration is open for the 2023 NSA Sunflower Research Forum, scheduled for January 11 and 12 at the Holiday Inn in Fargo, N.D. Visit 2023 Research Forum on the NSA website (sunflowernsa.com). Hotel information also is available there.
        The 2023 event will be the 45th annual Sunflower Research Forum. Presentations from past forums dating back to 2008 are available at www.sunflowernsa.com. Click on “Research” to be directed to individual papers from each year’s event.

Colorado No-Till Conference Set for Feb. 7-8
        The Colorado Conservation Tillage Association’s 2023 High Plains No-Till Conference is scheduled for February 7 and 8 in Burlington, Colo. Along with keynote speakers Jim Gerrish, Jason Mauch and Don Day, Jr., there’ll be more than 45 learning sessions on soil health, no-till, regenerative grazing and farm business management. Visit www.HighPlainsNoTill.com.

Sunflower Production Update Will Be March 21
        Sunflower producers and crop advisers interested in sunflower production management updates should plan to participate in the Zoom conference ‘2023 Getting-it-Right in Sunflower Production’ on Tuesday, March 21, from 8:30 a.m. to noon CST. The program will be conducted by North Dakota State University Extension and is supported by the National Sunflower Association.
        Topics to be covered include: hybrid selection, what has been learned from the fall sunflower surveys, plant nutrient and soil management, updates for weed, disease and insect management, combine fire prevention and sunflower marketing. Attendees will receive a list of several pertinent extension sunflower production resources as reference materials. These materials are supplemental to the presentations, which themselves will be recorded and archived.
        Certified crop adviser continuing education credits will be available for meeting participants. Pre-registration is required at:
https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/getting-it-right. This site also has video links to the previous sunflower production meeting, held last February. All who preregister will receive emailed instructions on how to participate in the March 21 meeting. The program is free of charge.

USDA Collecting 2022 Production, Stocks Data
        With the 2022 growing season having concluded, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is contacting producers nationwide to gather final year-end crop production numbers and the amount of grain and oilseeds stored on their farms. Also, NASS is surveying grain facility operators to determine year-end off-farm grain and oilseed stocks.
        Responses to the survey will be used in calculating county-level yields, which have a direct impact on farmers. USDA’s Farm Service Agency may use the data in administering producer programs and in determining disaster assistance program calculations. All responses are completely confidential. Survey results will be published in several reports, including the Crop Production Annual Summary and the quarterly Grain Stocks report, both to be released on January 12.

Canadian Sunflower Production Increases
        According to Statistics Canada data, 2022 Canadian sunflower seed production is estimated at 84,054 metric tons (MT), which is up 3% from 2021 when Canadian farmers produced 81,749 MT of sunflower seed. The 2022 production is slightly above the three-year average of 81,983 MT.
        The majority of Canada’s sunflower crop is grown in Manitoba, with production also in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

South Dakota Sunflower Production Book
        Best Management Practices for Sunflower Production, a fully illustrated book published earlier this year by the South Dakota State University Extension and the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, in cooperation with the South Dakota Oilseeds Council, remains available for online viewing and downloading. The book contains 14 chapters relating to sunflower’s management and pests. Editors were Febina Mathew, Ruth Beck, Patrick Wagner and Adam Varenhorst, with contributions from other South Dakota university specialists and South Dakota producers. Go to https://extension.sdstate.edu/best-management-practices-sunflower-production to access the publication.

2022 Sunflower Crop Quality Highlights
        The annual sampling of the U.S. sunflower crop showed oil contents virtually identical to those found in the 2021 crop. In samples from the Northern Plains region, the oil content averaged 44.9% in 2022, compared with 44.8% the previous year. The High Plains average — 40.0% — was identical to that of 2021. Test weight averaged 30.2 lbs/bu in the Northern Plains in 2022, compared to 31.5 lbs in 2021; in the High Plains, 29.0 lbs/bu versus 29.3 lbs in 2021.

2023 Summer Seminar Set for Spearfish
        The 2023 NSA Summer Seminar is scheduled for June 27-29 in Spearfish, S.D. More details will be available on the NSA website and in The Sunflower as the event draws closer.
        This will be the 39th annual NSA Summer Seminar. The 2022 event, held in Grand Forks, N.D., drew about 135 attendees from various sectors of the sunflower industry.

Sign Up for Free NSA E-Publications
          Visit www.sunflowernsa.com/smartmail/ to sign up NSA’s free weekly Sunflower Highlights newsletter. You can also sign up for a digital copy of The Sunflower magazine there. For sunflower prices at various locations, visit www.sunflowernsa.com/ growers/Marketing/daily-market-news/# .