Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Jul 05 2016

Crop Progress

Planting is wrapping up in the reporting states. Colorado reports 92 percent of the sunflower crop has been planted and 89 percent of the Kansas crop has been planted. In North Dakota, 98 percent of the crop is reported emerged, and 9 percent is blooming.

Crop Progress - Tuesday, July 5, 2016

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Emerged	98	94	96	NA
Blooming	9	2	0	NA
South Dakota
Emerged	67	32	65	NA
Texas
Planted	92	90	92	94
Colorado
Planted	92	81	93	92
Kansas
Planted	89	82	87	90
Emerged	77	63	70	76

Crop Conditions - Tuesday, July 5, 2016

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	1	5	27	64	3
Minnesota	2	5	36	52	5
Colorado	0	0	32	63	5

Cutworms Causing Problems in SD Sunflower

South Dakota producers have reported cutworms feeding on newly emerged sunflower plants. As their name implies, cutworm caterpillar feeding often results in the stem or stalk of a new plant being fed around or through. This feeding injury results in the plant being “cut” as the stalk is no longer able to support the weight of the plant. Depending on the age of the plant, this method of feeding may also remove an entire portion of the stalk, which also results in the cutting injury. Click here to learn more about cutworms.

Markets

USDA released its planted acres report last week. Area planted to sunflower in 2016 totals 1.65 million acres, down 11 percent from 2015. Harvested area is expected to decrease 12 percent from last year to 1.58 million acres. Planted area of oil type varieties, at 1.43 million acres, is down 8 percent from 2015, and harvested area is expected to decrease 9 percent from last year. Planted acreage of non-oil varieties, estimated at 216,400, is down 30 percent from last year. Harvested area is expected to decrease 31 percent from last year to 201,900 acres. USDA increased soybeans, spring wheat, corn and cotton acres from March. USDA pegged corn acres at 94.1 million, above the average trade estimate of 92.9 million acres. Soybean acres were reported at a record-high 83.7 million acres just slightly less than the trade estimate of 83.8 million acres. Analysts were surprised that this spring’s market rally didn’t convince farmers to plant more soybeans and less corn. Total wheat acres were reported at 50.8 million acres, which is more than the trade estimate of 49.8 million acres. Soybean stocks came in at 870 million bushels, which was also above the trade guess of 829 million bushels. With the release of the USDA report, the key to oilseed prices going forward will be US summer weather and demand news.