Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: May 11 2020

2020 Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship winner announced

Ruchika Ruchika is the recipient of this year’s Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship, administered by the National Sunflower Association. Ruchika will receive $5,000. Ruchika is pursuing a PhD in plant pathology at South Dakota State University. As a student in Dr. Febina Mathew’s lab, Ruchika’s research project is identifying fungicide sensitivity and candidate resistant genes for fungi causing Phomopsis stem canker in sunflower. Ruchika is originally from India and earned a bachelor’s in agriculture and a master’s in plant pathology at Punjab Agricultural University in India. She has been working with Dr. Mathew since fall of 2019.

NSA not selling contact lists

We have been notified that several companies are selling contact information, claiming they have an “NSA contact list.” If you’ve received such an email, please know that the NSA is in no way connected to these people and did not authorize the sale of any contact lists. The information they claim they can provide is all available free of charge on the NSA website. Our website includes information to give sunflower producers, seed crushers and processors as well as end users points of contact for the benefit of the sunflower industry. If you have further questions, please contact our office.

N Calculator available for North Dakota producers

With fertilizer shortages and producers looking to control costs, check out the North Dakota Nitrogen Calculator for sunflower. You can find the calculator here. The calculator uses the new nitrogen recommendations, which were updated last year for the first time since the 1970s. There are also new recommendations for phosphorus (P) for sunflower in the northern Great Plains. The new N and P recommendations are based on general productivity history and not a yield prediction model. N and P recommendations are based on both documented yield responses to each and economic analysis. The NDSU Fertilizing Sunflower Circular SF713 with the new recommendations can be found online here.

Sunflower provides assistance in dealing with salinity

If you are dealing with fields that have areas of high saline content, planting sunflower can help turn those areas around. Sunflower is a saline-tolerant crop, meaning if it is planted in a field with a large seep, sunflower would do better than other crops. Its deep root system helps the soil structure. Those deep roots help get the water out of the soil at a deeper level and remove saline areas in the field. Producers should check with their seed dealers and find out which varieties are the most salt tolerant and appropriate for their growing area. For more information, click here.

Upcoming Events

August 20, 2020
NSA High Plains Committee Meeting
Goodland, KS

January 13-14, 2021
NSA Research Forum
Holiday Inn, Fargo, ND

Markets

Nearby old crop NuSun prices were unchanged to up 25 cents with high oleic unchanged to up 5 cents in the past week. June old crop prices were unchanged to up 60 cents. New crop NuSun prices were down 15 cents to unchanged with high oleic new crop down 35 cents to unchanged. Despite the recent downward movement, new crop sunflower prices are still trading above historical levels. Something else to consider is the oil premiums that crush plants pay on sunflower. Sunflower is the only oilseed that pays premiums for oil content above 40%. Considering oil premiums that are offered at the crush plants on oil content above 40% at a rate of 2% price premium for each 1% of oil above 40%; this pushes a contract with 45% oil content gross return 10% higher per cwt and pushes a $17.30 contract up to $19.00. Regardless of recent positive news in U.S. and China relations, traders are questioning whether or not China will live up to its Phase 1 purchase commitments. Trade numbers released last week saw a sharp decline in U.S. exports to China and sowed doubt that Beijing would be able to live up to its initial commitment to buy $76.7 billion above 2017 levels for agricultural goods, manufactured goods, energy goods and services. Traders will no doubt continue keeping a close eye on weekly export sales reports in the weeks ahead. Coronavirus developments will also be closely monitored as states re-open their economies.

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, May 11, 2020 ($/CWT)

	Deliver	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change	2020 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil	Nearby	26.35	25.80	26.19	+.39	27.31
West Fargo, ND	NuSun	17.10	19.00	19.25	+.25	17.30
West Fargo, ND	High Oleic	17.50	19.75	19.80	+.05	17.30
Enderlin, ND	NuSun	16.95	19.45	19.45	NC	16.80
Enderlin, ND	High Oleic	17.35	19.75	19.75	NC	17.00
Goodland, KS	NuSun	16.25	18.45	18.45	NC	16.90
Goodland, KS	High Oleic	17.35	19.20	19.20	NC	17.90

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, May 11, 2020
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. location)

	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change
Soybean Oil	26.01	24.85	24.69	-.16
Cotton Oil (psby)	35.61	41.15	41.49	+.34
Corn Oil	29.00	46.00	46.00	NC