Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Feb 24 2020

NSA Board of Directors approves research projects

At their meeting last week, the NSA Board of Directors reviewed and approved funding for 14 research projects for 2020. The projects total $345,107. Funded projects include studies of insects, disease, weeds, production and more.

Production Resource Books available on NSA website

As you plan for spring planting, there is helpful information on our website for producers. Click here for the growers section of our website; check out the Sunflower Production Resource Book for your area. The books provide guidelines and recommendations on production practices, pest identification, field selection and more.

iPad Winners

Congratulations to the lucky winners of the iPads given away at recent ag shows. The NSA’s High Plains committee gave away an iPad at two ag shows. The winners are:

Cover Your Acres: Luke Smith - Leoti, KS
CCTA High Plains No-Till Conference: Curtis Sayles - Seibert, CO

Thanks to everyone for stopping by the NSA’s High Plains Committee booth. We look forward to seeing you again next year!

NSA scholarship available

The National Sunflower Association is seeking applicants for the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship. In tribute to the dedicated work of Curtis Stern, an industry advocate and former NSA board member. Preference will be given to students who are in their last two years of undergraduate studies or in graduate level studies and have maintained at least a cumulative 3.0 GPA on a 4.0=A scale. Application deadline is April 1, 2020. A total of $3,500 is available for the scholarship this year. Applications can be submitted online. Click here to learn more. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt attinam@sunflowernsa.com with any questions.

Markets

Old crop prices were unchanged this week. New crop NuSun prices were down 10 to 30 cents with high oleic down 25 cents to up 10 cents. USDA updated its statistical guesses at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum last week. USDApredicts 94 million acres of corn to be planted in 2020, 2 million more acres than predicted at last year’s outlook and up 4.3 million acres from 2019. 2020 soybean acreage will take the majority of last year’s 16 million prevented plant acres. Around 85 million acres of soybeans are forecasted to be planted this year, up nearly 9 million acres from last year. Both estimates were higher than industry guesses. If realized this will not be helpful and could cause ending stocks to build pressuring 2020 prices for corn and beans if Chinese demand remains subdued. Traders are anxiously awaiting new Chinese purchases to materialize, with the phase-one trade deal signed a month ago and recently enacted. China continues to battle a coronavirus outbreak, which has impacted soybean import needs in the short-term. There is only one week left in determining 2020 crop insurance spring prices. The price election for oil type sunflowers is expected to be around $17.10 with confections at $22.90 per cwt. Final price elections will be announced in early March. In the week ahead, US export demand news and South American weather will continue to be the main market movers.