Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Apr 25 2016

Bill Gilbert Re-Elected to NSA Board of Directors

Bill Gilbert, a Syngenta company rep, has been re-elected to a second three- year term on the National Sunflower Association Board of Directors. Gilbert represents the hybrid seed industry on the board. The Fort Collins, CO resident has more than 30 years of experience in the sunflower industry: Gilbert managed his own ag consulting business for 18 years and has been with Syngenta since 1999. He currently manages Integrated Solution development within Diverse Field Crops including sunflower, sugar beets, canola, sorghum, and alfalfa. His role is to work with growers and industry to uncover unmet needs and utilize Syngenta’s product portfolio to create new solutions to address those needs.

Researcher to be Honored at International Sunflower Conference

Every four years, the International Sunflower Association (ISA) hands out the Pustovoit Award at the International Sunflower Conference. This award is the highest honor given to people who dedicate their lives to working with sunflower. This May, Dr. Thomas Gulya will receive the award. Gulya retired in February 2014 from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service following more than 35 years as plant pathologist with the Fargo, N.D.-based ARS Sunflower Research Unit. Other Pustovoit Award honorees are Dr Maria Pacureanu, Romania, Dr Tatyana Antonova, Russia, Amelia Bertero de Romano, Argentina, Dr Patrick Vincourt, France and a special Posthumous Award will be given to Dr Carlos Sala. The International Sunflower Conference, will be held May 29-June 3, 2015 in Edirne, Turkey.

Register online at for the 34th Annual Summer Seminar scheduled for June 28-30 in Bismarck, ND. Register online - click here to get started!

Markets

The recent rally in soybean futures is tied to weather concerns about the South American crop. In Argentina, heavy rains have caused significant harvest delays and raised questions about the condition of the country’s soybean crop. Dry weather and falling production numbers are the worry in Brazil. Various estimates have South American soybean production anywhere from 1 million tons lower to 10 million tons lower. Such a backdrop is giving CBoT traders concerns about the ability of South American exports to deliver what they were expecting. This has led funds to go from a short position in soybeans to now being long. At this point, the market is overbought and it could mean that weak speculators could be quick to get out on a pull back if conditions change. Could the market be overreacting? Will a shortfall in production materialize? It remains to be seen. On the sunflower side, ADM is offering additional 2016 new crop Act of God (AOG) high oleic sunflower contracts at Enderlin and Pingree, ND. When high oleic contracts were first offered this winter they were snapped up quickly with many growers still looking to contract 2016 production. This is an opportunity to lock in prices and diversify your crop risk this year.