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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Jul 16 2018

Crop Progress

North Dakota's sunflower fields are starting to bloom, and 87% of the crop is reported in good to excellent condition. Meanwhile, Kansas producers report 96 percent of the sunflower planting is complete in that state.

Crop Progress - Monday, July 16, 2018 State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average North Dakota         Emerged 100 96 100 100 Blooming 14 8 8 --- South Dakota         Planted 100 96 100 100 Kansas         Planted 96 92 99 98 Texas         Harvested NA 35 NA NA

Crop Conditions - Monday, July 16, 2018 State Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent North Dakota 1 1 11 79 8 Minnesota 0 0 28 48 24 Colorado 0 0 30 70 0

Grower Report

Sunflower in Texas have all been planted and are in a variety of stages, from boot top tall to blooming, and a few fields have already been harvested. Mike Williams with Red River Commodities in Lubbock, TX says so far the crop is all average to a little above average.

Friends and Neighbors Day at USDA-ARS Mandan Site

The public is invited to celebrate Friends and Neighbors Day at the USDA-ARS Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory from 2:00 – 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 19. The annual free event gives the public an opportunity to learn about local ag research and take a tour. Tours this year will focus on drone use in agriculture, crop interseeding, remote sensing and phenology, drought and cover crop interaction, and transitioning to organic crop production. The lab is located south of the Heart River on ND Highway 6 at 1701 10thAve. SW in Mandan, ND.

Markets

The Trump administration upped the ante in the trade war with China last week, saying it would slap 10 percent tariffs on an extra $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Previously, Washington had imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports. The ongoing U.S.-China trade situation resulted in further price erosion for soybeans and products last week. There's also talk that additional tariffs may come into play if the Chinese attempt to counter by placing more tariffs on U.S. goods. Additional price pressure came from a bearish USDA report that increased 2018 soybean production to 4.3 billion bushels making a big crop a little bigger. For the first time USDA incorporated the impact of Chinese soybean import duties into their estimates, which drove exports down 250 million bushels, and boosted domestic soybean ending stocks to 580 million bushels, up from 385 million bushels in June. USDA also boosted global soybean ending stocks for both new crop and old crop substantially. In addition, the average U.S. farmgate price for soybeans was lowered. Old and new crop sunflower prices continued to slide last week at the crush plants. The price premium new crop had over old crop is evaporating as the market is starting to reflect market fundamentals for this time of year. Sunflower trading will be influenced to a greater extent by crop conditions and progress along with weather conditions in the near term.