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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Mar 11 2019

NSA Board Members Go to Washington, DC

Several members of the National Sunflower Association’s board of directors spend time last week in Washington, DC. Members made visits to members of Congress from Kansas, Minnesota, North and South Dakota about Farm Bill implementation, Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations and enactment of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. In addition, the group met with officials from the USDA APHIS/Wildlife Services to discuss blackbird depredation concerns, USDA Risk Management Agency addressing quality adjustments for con-oil sunflower and USDA Agricultural Research Service to support the National Sclerotinia Initiative.

Sunflower Meeting Set for March 13

A sunflower producers agronomic meeting and industry update will be held March 13 by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service at the Dallam/Hartley AgriLife Extension Annex in Dalhart, Texas. The program will be from 3-5 p.m. Dr. Calvin Trostle, AgriLife Extension agronomist will be the presenter. He will discuss sunflower production and best management practices. Two Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units will be offered. For more information, call 806-244-4434 or email mhbragg@ag.tamu.edu.

Reserve Your Room for Summer Seminar

Circle these dates on your calendar: June 25-27, 2019. Those are the dates for this year’s NSA Summer Seminar. This year’s Summer Seminar will be held in Medora, North Dakota. A block of rooms has been reserved there. To make your reservation, visit www.medora.com, select hotel reservations and enter check-in and check-out dates. You also need to enter Group Code 5781. You can also call 1-800-633-6721 and ask for the NSA block of rooms. The program is being finalized now and registration will open soon. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt at tinam@sunflowernsa.com with questions.

Markets

US stockpiles of corn and wheat are growing, according to the USDA’s latest supply and demand report released last week. USDA estimated the 2018/19 corn ending stocks at 1.835 billion bushels vs. the average trade estimate of 1.75 billion bushels and their February estimate of 1.735 billion. USDA pegged the US 2018/19 wheat ending stocks at 1.055 billion bushels vs. the average trade estimate of 1.02 billion bushels and their February estimate of 1.01 billion. For soybeans, USDA trimmed ending stocks by only 10 million bushels at 900 million bushels, vs. the trade’s expectation of 898 million. World 2018/19 soybean ending stocks were increased from last month at 107.1 million metric tons (MMT). vs. the trade’s expectation of 106.3 MMT. and the USDA ’s February estimate of 106.7 MMT. USDA pegged the 2018-19 Brazilian soybean output at 116.5 MMT vs. the trade’s expectation of 115.4 MMT and the USDA’s February estimate of 117.0 MMT. Argentina’s soybean output was left unchanged from USDA’s February estimate of 55.0 MMT. With the release of these figures, traders will be more focused on 2019 US planting intentions. Trade expectations about planted acreage will likely be in a wide range, but it seems reasonable to expect corn and spring wheat acreage to increase and soybean to show a decrease over 2019 levels. Projected ending stocks for the big three crops will also play into prices in the months ahead.