Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Jun 20 2016

Crop Progress

Planting is wrapping up in the Dakotas: North Dakota producers are 98% done planting sunflower and South Dakota producers have palnted 80% of the crop. Crop conditions look good in North Dakota as well, with 78% of the crop reported in good to excellent condition.

Crop Progress - Monday, June 20, 2016

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Planted	98	93	96	86
Emerged	82	63	76	NA
South Dakota
Planted	80	68	62	70
Texas
Planted	85	80	90	87
Colorado
Planted	67	48	50	63
Kansas
Planted	70	51	57	65
Emerged	45	14	26	39

Crop Conditions - Monday, June 20, 2016

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	0	2	20	75	3
Minnesota	1	4	46	45	4

Winfield® Crop Adventure Opens

A project to raise awareness of modern farming is now open in Indiana. The idea behind the Winfield® Crop Adventure is to spotlight the entrepreneurial spirit and influence of farmers and spark discussions about solutions to feeding more than nine billion people by 2050. Click here for more about the Fields of the Future.

There is always research to be done when it comes to sunflower, and this year’s Summer Seminar will highlight research being done in two different areas: Febina Mathew and Sam Markell with present the latest on Phomopsis research and Qing-Ming Gao will update attendees on the ARS high oleic breeding program. The 34^th annual Summer Seminar will be held in Bismarck, ND June 28-30. Click here to register. Registration will increase to $375 and golf to $120 at the door, so register now!

Markets

Old crop sunflower prices ended down 25-45 cents with new crop down 10-25 cents in the past week. It was a wild ride in the markets last week. As fund selling, a mostly benign NOAA summer US Midwest weather outlook, concern about EU economy coupled with new US Fed concern about the US economy rattled markets. Fund selling was linked to traders positioning themselves ahead of the USDA June crop acreage and stocks reports. Most are looking for USDA to increase US 2016 soybean acres in their June 30 report. If soybean acres increase sharply after USDA’s June 30 Acreage report, soybean prices could fall sharply. The NOAA 30 and 90 day outlooks still favor hot weather in June and for the summer, with normal summertime rain expected. Traders looked at the forecasts as largely favorable for crops. Also impacting the markets is this week's vote by the British on whether to stay in the EU. It has been argued that a British departure would disrupt financial markets. Traders are expecting more outside influences to affect commodity prices ahead of the June 23 British vote. The Fed Chairman’s mixed comments about the US economy last week added further pressure as traders left commodities for safer havens. In addition to weather forecasts, market attention will continue to shift to the June 30 acreage and stocks reports.