Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Mar 26 2018

Registration is now open for our 2018 NSA Summer Seminar, scheduled for June 26-28, 2018. This year’s Summer Seminar will be held at the Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, Minnesota. Click here to register on our website. You’ll find our tentative schedule there too, as well as hotel information and more. A block of rooms has been reserved there for June 25-28. There’s a link on our website, under “Hotel Information” to make your reservation. The room block will be released May 25, 2018 but may fill up much faster so don’t wait! The program is being finalized now and more information will be coming soon. Check the NSA website for further updates. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt at tinam@sunflowernsa.com with any questions.

NSA Website Offers Help for Growers

Spring planting on your mind? If you’ve got questions about growing sunflower, we’ve got answers! Visit the growers section on our website: www.sunflowernsa.com/growers/. The section addresses many questions and factors that influence a successful sunflower crop. Several links are provided that give more details about many important topics, including insects, diseases, weeds, yield trails, approved chemicals, production, marketing, crop insurance, and more.

March/April Issue of The Sunflower Coming Soon

The March/April issue of The Sunflower will be arriving in your mailbox soon. Look for articles about NSA research funding, progress with Sclerotinia, and meet a family from Wisconsin who has big plans for sunflower. This is the final issue of the 2017-18 magazine year, but we are always looking for story ideas and planning for next year, if you have a story idea give us a call, or click here to submite your idea on our website.

Markets

On Thursday, USDA will release its March 1 stocks and US 2018 planted acres by crop reports. New crop prices for oil sunflower have continued to move higher the past three weeks. 2018 new crop prices are now $2.00-$2.25 per cwt. higher than last year at this same time. This has led to some industry members expecting oil sunflower acres to show an increase from 2017. Based on historical usage an increase in acres of 15-20 percent in 2018 can easily be added given current demand without impacting present prices to a great degree. Confection sunflower acres are expected to be equal to last year. Most private firms look for corn acres to decrease with soybeans and wheat showing an increase from last year. Some private estimates have 2018 soybean acres in a range of 91-92 million acres, a record high if farmers match that estimate. Traders remain concerned over the potential for soybeans to be singled out for retaliation by China over new tariffs authorized by President Trump. China imports about 33% of the US soybean production each year. Some traders feel the large U.S. soybean supply, slower demand for products, and US farmers adding soybean acres in 2018 could pressure new crop soybean prices. Trading in the week ahead will mainly revolve around the upcoming USDA reports plus news of potential Chinese tariffs and impact it might have on US exports.