Sunflower Highlights
Post Date: Jun 27 2016
Crop Progress
North Dakota producers are done planting sunflower, and 94 percent of the crop is reported emerged, and one percent is already blooming. So far, the crop looks good, with 68 percent of North Dakota's sunflowers reported in good to excellent condition.
Crop Progress - Monday, June 27, 2016
State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average
North Dakota        
Planted 100 98 98 92
Emerged 94 82 90 NA
Blooming 1 0 0 NA
South Dakota        
Planted 97 80 76 85
Emerged 32 NA 41 NA
Texas        
Planted 90 85 91 90
Colorado        
Planted 81 67 85 74
Kansas        
Planted 82 70 76 80
Emerged 63 45 53 61
Crop Conditions - Monday, June 27, 2016
State Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent
North Dakota 0 5 27 65 3
Minnesota 1 5 38 52 4
Colorado 0 0 31 64 5
Grower Report
An early wheat harvest allowed Kansas producert Karl Esping to get a head start on planting sunflower. In fact, he's already done seeding 400 acres of sunflower. Esping says in a normal year, sunflower planting is not done until between July 4 and 10. he says his area has received good moisture so far and he is expecting a good sunflower crop this year.
34th Annual Summer Seminar Starts Tomorrow
Our biggest event of the year gets underway tomorrow! The 34th annual NSA Summer Seminar is being held in Bismarck, ND at the Ramada Hotel June 28-30. The event begins on Tuesday evening with a social hour and the annual Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser. Wednesday if filled with presentations covering everything from sustainability, research, soil biology, PHO transformation, research, market outlooks, and more. On Thursday, we will wrap things up with the annual golf tournament. Registration at the door will be $325 and golf will be $120. For a complete schedule, click here.
 
Rule Announced for Commercial Drone Uses by DOT
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved a small UAS rule that provides the first national, uniform guidelines for non-recreational operation of drones lighter than 55 pounds. Under the rule, drone flights will be permitted for commercial, scientific, public safety, and educational purposes, pursuant to a set of operational and safety requirements. The new rule, which takes effect in 60 days, will allow unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds to fly as high as 400 feet and as fast as 100 mph during the day. In the evening, only drones with anti-collision lights will be allowed to operate. Unmanned aircraft will not be allowed to fly over people under most conditions, and non-recreational remote pilots will be required to pass a written test and go through the same security vetting process as traditional pilots. Operators will continue to be required to keep their aircraft within sight, unless they get a waiver. The rule also allows unmanned aircraft to operate in sparsely occupied areas without a requirement to coordinate with air traffic control.
New Developments in Two Proposed Mergers
Shareholders of Dow Chemical and DuPont will hold separate shareholder meetings next month to vote on the proposed merger between the two companies. Both meetings will be held on July 20. DuPont’s meeting will be held at its Wilmington, Delaware headquarters, and Dow Chemical’s meeting will be at its Midland, Michigan offices. Once completed, Dow and DuPont will split into three separate, publicly-traded companies focused on agriculture, material science, and specialty products. Meanwhile, one of China’s largest state-owned investment companies, Citic Trust, has made a $5 billion investment in ChemChina to help fund the Syngenta purchase. ChemChina and Syngenta expect the $43 billion purchase to be finalized by the end of this year.
Upcoming Events
Juen 28-30, 2016: NSA Summer Seminar, Bismarck, ND
Markets
CBoT soybean futures had a rough week as bearish weather forecasts and the surprise vote in Britain to leave the European Union rattled markets. Sunflower prices were mixed but able to hold up better losing only 5 cents to gaining 10 cents in the past week. A return to mostly favorable Midwest weather into early July is pressuring row crop prices and encouraging more fund liquidation as we head into this Thursday’s USDA planted acreage and stocks reports. Most traders are looking for USDA to increase its current estimate of soybean acres from 82.2 million acres to near 84 million acres. Sunflower acres will also be given in the report. The market is expecting non-oil acres to show a moderate decrease from last year with oil-type acres holding steady to slightly lower than last year. While it will take months, if not years to know how the vote outcome in the United Kingdom will play out, it sent commodity prices off a cliff as investors moved out of risky assets and put their money into safe havens such as the US dollar and gold. Financial markets are a mess after the Brexit vote and will take a while to sort themselves out. In addition to weather forecasts, market attention will be focused on the June 30 USDA acreage and stocks reports.
Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, June 27, 2016 ($/CWT)
  Deliver Last Year Last Week This Week Change 2016 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil Nearby 33.05 31.64 31.26 -.38 31.93
Fargo, ND NuSun 23.45 17.30 17.25 -.05 17.95
Enderlin, ND NuSun 23.40 17.20 17.30 +.10 17.95
Goodland, KS NuSun 19.35 16.70 16.80 +.10 17.50
Goodland, KS High Oleic 21.35 17.70 17.80 +.10 19.25
Prices recorded here are believed to be reliable at the time of posting. All prices are subject to change. Contact these facilities for complete market details.
U.S. CRUDE OIL VALUES recorded on Monday, June 27, 2016
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. location)
  Last Year Last Week This Week Change
Soybean Oil 32.55 29.14 28.76 -.38
Cotton Oil (psby) 48.11 46.64 46.26 -.38
Corn Oil 43.00 45.50 45.50 NC
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