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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Aug 17 2020

Crop Progress

Seventy-four percent of the sunflower crop in both North Dakota and Minnesota is rated in good to excellent condition this week.

Crop Progress - Monday, August 17, 2020 State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average North Dakota         Blooming 91 78 77 NA Petals Dry 9 2 7 13 Texas         Harvested NA 38 42 35

Crop Conditions - Monday, August 17, 2020 State Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent North Dakota 1 3 22 69 5 Minnesota 3 5 18 67 7 Colorado 7 24 47 21 1

Scout for grasshoppers in South Dakota

Grasshoppers continue to be an issue in some areas of South Dakota. The hotspots seem to be along the Missouri River. Many areas of South Dakota had 2019 fall conditions and 2020 spring conditions that were conducive to grasshopper population increases. Everyone should be monitoring their crops for grasshopper feeding. For a field, 30-45 nymphs or 8-14 adults warrant an insecticide application to reduce the populations.

Examine crop for rust

Rust is most often found on the lower under-side of leaves. The pustules are cinnamon-red and readily recognizable. Yield loss can occur and control measures should be considered when rust reaches approximately 1% severity on the upper four leaves and the plant is in the vegetative stages until it reaches the R6 stage. An infestation on the upper leaves at R6 or later will not likely have a negative yield affect. Fortunately, rust can be managed with well-timed fungicide applications. To learn more about rust, click here.

Grower report

Lemmon, South Dakota grower Lance Hourigan says his sunflower crop was looking to be his best ever, until a hail storm hit last week. Hourigan says the hail wiped out about 750 acres of his sunflowers. But, he's says about 1,000 acres of high oleics survived the storm, and he says those 'flowers still look like they'll be a good crop, if Mother Nature cooperates.

Continue scouting for insects

With sunflower fields blooming, adults of red sunflower seed weevil (RSSW) will be emerging and will fly to the nearest flowering sunflowers. Trap catches for banded sunflower moth (BSM) and Arthuri sunflower moths (SM) have increased in the last week and are at economic thresholds for control in some locations. Severe infestations of RSSW and moths can be very damaging to the sunflower head and result in seed loss. Once the decision to treat has been made, it is critical to time the spray application correctly to get effective management of all sunflower head insects including RSSW, BSM, SM, and Lygus bug. The best sunflower plant stage to treat is when the majority of plants are in the R5.1 growth stage until they are passed R5.7 growth stage. To read more about scouting for insects and the best treatments, click here. And to see the insecticides registered in sunflower, 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

August 12th was a huge day for commodity markets as USDA released its latest supply and demand report and first report of FSA certified acres. Market analysts were expecting the August supply and demand report to show increased production for soybean and corn and USDA did not disappoint the trade.  At 4.425 billion bushels (bb), soybean production came in under the record crop of 2018-19 by just 3 million bushels (mb). USDA did bump soybean yield to 53.3 bpa, up from 47.4 bpa last year and above trade expectations. If realized, that would be a record high soybean yield, above the previous record of 52 bpa in the 2016-17 season. The bearish soybean news continued with U.S. new crop ending stocks, which were bumped up to 610 mb, up from USDA's estimate of 425 mb in July. The U.S. corn production estimate came in at 15.27 bb vs. the trade’s expectation of 15.17 bb. USDA pegged the U.S. average corn yield at 181.3 bpa versus the average trade estimate of 180.5 bpa. USDA Farm Service Agency released its initial reported acres figures this week for all crops. Oil-type sunflower planted acreage was pegged at 1.21 million acres with confection acres at 163,500. The figures were within the average trade estimates. FSA will update the acreage report in mid-September. USDA will provide their initial yield and production estimates for the 2020 oil-type and confection sunflower crop in October.

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, August 17, 2020 ($/CWT)   Deliver Last Year Last Week This Week Change 2020 NEW Crop Chicago Oil Nearby 26.68 31.19 31.30 +.11 31.53 West Fargo, ND NuSun 18.55 16.60 16.60 NC 16.60 West Fargo, ND High Oleic 18.70 16.80 16.80 NC 16.80 Enderlin, ND NuSun 18.45 16.60 16.60 NC 16.60 Enderlin, ND High Oleic 18.65 16.80 16.80 NC 16.80 Goodland, KS NuSun 16.45 16.80 16.80 NC 16.80 Goodland, KS High Oleic 17.55 17.80 17.80 NC 17.80 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, August 17, 2020 (dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. location)   Last Year Last Week This Week Change Soybean Oil 28.68 31.01 31.55 +.54 Cotton Oil (psby) 37.68 45.73 46.30 +.57 Corn Oil 29.00 68.00 68.00 NC