Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Mar 02 2020

Max Dietrich 2020 Gold Award Winner

Max Dietrich has been named the 2020 NSA Gold Award winner. Max devoted much of his career to sunflower; he held many agronomic, sales and marketing positions with seed companies and served as the NSA crop promotion director. Dietrich is described as a leader and a “doer” in his sunflower work. He put in countless hours to the NSA Sunflower Survey and served as chairman of the NSA research committee. The NSA Board of Directors selected Dietrich for the award at their meeting last month. Dietrich passed away last fall, but the board will present his wife Roxie with the Gold Award at the summer seminar, which will be held in Spearfish, South Dakota June 23-25, 2020.

NSA scholarship available

The National Sunflower Association is seeking applicants for the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship. In tribute to the dedicated work of Curtis Stern, an industry advocate and former NSA board member. Preference will be given to students who are in their last two years of undergraduate studies or in graduate level studies and have maintained at least a cumulative 3.0 GPA on a 4.0=A scale. Application deadline is April 1, 2020. A total of $5,000 is available for the scholarship this year. Applications can be submitted online. Click here to learn more. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt with any questions.

Make plans to attend the 2020 NSA Summer Seminar

Circle these dates on your calendar: June 23, 24 and 25. Those are the date’s for this year’s NSA Summer Seminar. This year we’ll meet in Spearfish, South Dakota. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Spearfish Holiday Inn. Standard rooms are $124.99 plus tax; suites are $154.99 plus tax; pool side rooms are an additional $30 per night plus tax. To make your reservation, click here. Use the group code NSA. The program is being finalized now and registration will open soon. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt with questions.

Proper spring grain drying and storage critical

As outdoor temperatures increase, stored grain requires attention to prevent losses, says Ken Hellevang, North Dakota State University Extension agricultural engineer and grain drying expert. The stored grain temperature increases in the spring not only due to an increase in outdoor temperatures but also due to solar heat gain on the bin. Solar energy produces more than twice as much heat gain on the south wall of a bin in early spring as it does during the summer. Here are some recommendations from Hellevang:

Run aeration fans periodically to keep the grain temperature near or below 30 degrees until the grain is dried if it exceeds recommended storage moisture contents, and below 40 degrees as long as possible during spring and early summer if it is dry.
Cover the fan when it is not operating to prevent warm air from blowing into the bin and heating the stored grain. He also recommends ventilating the top of the bin to remove the solar heat gain that warms the grain. Provide air inlets near the eaves and exhausts near the peak or use a roof exhaust fan.
Bin vents can become blocked with frost and ice when the fan is operated at temperatures near or below freezing, which may lead to damage to the roof. Leave the fill and access door open as a pressure relief valve when operating the fan at temperatures near or below freezing.
The natural air-drying for oil sunflowers requires an airflow rate of 0.75 cfm/bu for up to 15 percent moisture. The drying should start when outdoor temperatures average about 40 degrees.

Click here for more tips.

Upcoming events

March 12, 2020
NSA High Plains Committee Meeting, Goodland, KS

March 17, 2020
SDSU 2020 Agronomy Update, Pierre, SD

June 23-25, 2020
NSA Summer Seminar, Spearfish, SD

Markets

The price discovery period for crop insurance for sunflower ended on February 28. The 2020 price elections for sunflower will be announced this week. The price election for oil type sunflowers is expected to be around $16.90 with confections at $22.60 per cwt. A smaller 2019 US sunflower crop and good demand are supporting old crop NuSun and High Oleic prices which ended the week unchanged to up 15 cents at the crush plants. New crop prices are beginning to drift lower as producers sign 2020 production contracts. Interest in sunflower production has been very high and producers are taking advantage of the attractive prices being offered by crushers and confection processors. Despite the recent price downturn, new crop sunflower prices are still penciling out well. CBoT traders continue to anxiously await new Chinese purchases to materialize after the signing of the phase-one trade deal. China continues to battle the coronavirus outbreak, which has impacted soybean import needs. Some market analysts think the export surge from the trade deal will take several months to become visible with the potential to extend into this fall because of the outbreak. South America continues to make good harvest progress and weather conditions are favorable for producing a record soybean crop. In the week ahead CBoT traders will continue to weigh the coronavirus impact on US export demand and South American production prospects.

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, March 2, 2020 ($/CWT)

	Deliver	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change	2020 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil	Nearby	29.78	29.49	28.57	-.92	30.09
West Fargo, ND	NuSun	17.25	20.00	20.00	NC	18.10
West Fargo, ND	High Oleic	17.15	20.25	20.25	NC	18.30
Enderlin, ND	NuSun	17.05	19.75	19.90	+.15	18.15
Enderlin, ND	High Oleic	17.40	19.95	20.10	+.15	18.55
Goodland, KS	NuSun	16.65	18.75	18.75	NC	18.60
Goodland, KS	High Oleic	17.75	19.50	19.50	NC	19.75

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, March 2, 2020
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. location)

	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change
Soybean Oil	28.98	29.29	28.81	-.48
Cotton Oil (psby)	35.78	38.49	37.57	-.92
Corn Oil	30.00	39.00	39.00	NC