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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: May 31 2016

Crop Progress

Sunflower planting is well ahead of schedule in South Dakota, where 30% of the crop is reported planted. That's compared to just 14% planted at this time last year. And in Minnesota, 94% of the state's sunflower crop is planted. That's two weeks ahead of last year, and 22 days ahead of average.

Crop Progress - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average North Dakota         Planted 67 46 48 32 Emerged 20 3 2 NA South Dakota         Planted 30 14 10 17 Minnesota         Planted 94 70 79 57 Texas         Planted 41 34 66 66 Colorado         Planted 16 5 7 16 Kansas         Planted 4 NA 5 14

Grower Report

Lemmon, South Dakota producer Lance Hourigan is nearly half done planting 2,500 acres of high oleic sunflower. Hourigan started planting about a week ago, and if all goes according to plan, he should be finished in another week or so. He says about an inch and a half of rain fell in about 20 minutes yesterday, as well as some hail, but says there wasn’t any damage.

David Douglas Joins NSA Board of Directors

David Douglas of ADM has replaced Mike Keller on the NSA board as an industry member. Keller has been promoted to the Vice President of Trading with ADM Specialty Ingredients and Douglas has taken over his previous job as Commercial Manager of ADM Enderlin. Douglas has an extensive background in oilseed processing. He previously worked Mankato, Minnesota, Frankfort, Indiana and most recently Kershaw, South Carolina. Mike Keller will remain involved in the sunflower industry as well. Welcome to the board, David!

NSA Summer Seminar Rate Increases June 3

The NSA’s 34th Annual Summer Seminar is just over a month away. Join us in Bismarck, ND on 28-30 for this informative and fun event. Registration is easy – you can register on our website. Registration will increase to $325 and golf to $100 after June 3, so register now!

Summer Seminar Sessions Cover Timely Topics

The Food and Drug Administration has given the food industry until June 18, 2018 to remove partially hydrogenated oils (phos) from their products. So what does that mean for sunflower? Brian Owens, Vice President of Oil Procurement and Risk Management for Stratas Foods, Inc. will answer that at the 34th Annual NSA Summer Seminar. Owens is one of several speakers scheduled for the event. The sessions kick off on Wednesday, June 29 at 8:30 am with a panel discussion about sustainability and what the future holds. Sessions continue through the afternoon. Click here for a complete schedule of topics and to register.

Upcoming Events

May 29-June 3,2016 19th Annual International Sunflower Conference Edirne, Turkey June 28-30, 2016 2016 NSA Summer Seminar Bismarck, ND

Markets

The current market for oilseeds and products has bulls and bears at odds. Market bulls are trying to find a good reason to justify the rally in beans and meal. They are mainly linking this to new speculative buying on talk of higher US 2016/17 soybean demand. This train of thought is tied to lower South America supply and lower Argentine soybean quality. Others feel soybeans may be finding new buyers after reports El Nino has run its course and we are headed into a drier and warmer US summer as a La Nina event sets in. Market bears are confused by these thoughts and believe that there is an adequate nearby world supply of corn, wheat and soybeans. They also believe US farmers are cutting back on wheat and corn and adding soybean acres on this rally.  Bears think US farmers will likely exceed the March planting intentions acreage figure by a large amount setting the market into a downward correction by late June or early July. They are looking at a favorable US Midwest two-week weather forecast and think a potential La Nina this summer could be weaker than earlier feared. Needless to say from now until the end of June the market will be in for an interesting ride as the bulls and bears fight it out to see who is correct.