Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Apr 15 2024

Registration is now open for our 2024 NSA Summer Seminar, scheduled for June 25-27, 2024. This year’s Summer Seminar will be held in Duluth, Minnesota. You can register on our website – go to 2024 NSA Summer Seminar (sunflowernsa.com) You’ll find our tentative schedule too, as well as hotel information and more. Pre-registration will begin at $375 and golf at $130, so register early for the best price. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Radisson Duluth Harborview. To reserve your room, call 218-481-1185 Ext. 2 using the group code G9653258. The rate is $151.00 per night plus taxes. The block of rooms will expire on May 24, 2024. The program is being finalized and more information will be coming soon. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt at tinam@sunflowernsa.com with questions.

Reducing Blackbird Damage

A good strategy to reducing blackbird damage is to plant as early as possible and desiccate the crop. In many cases, producers have been about to get the crop all harvested before the birds even move in. The earliest plant date for Minnesota is April 21. In North Dakota, it is May 6 for most counties north of Highway 200 and May 11 for the remaining counties, based on the USDA RMA early planting dates. Why take a chance when it comes to blackbirds when you can have a good sunflower crop? Maximize your return by planting early and getting the crop harvested as soon as possible.

Minnesota Sunflower Council re-elects board members

John Swanson and Kevin Capistran have been re-elected to the Minnesota Sunflower Council. Swanson farms near Mentor, Minnesota. He grows oil sunflower as well as spring wheat, corn, and soybeans. Capistran grows oil sunflower, spring wheat, barley, soybeans, and sugarbeets on his farm near Crookston, Minnesota. Both men will represent Region 1 on the Minnesota Sunflower Council.

Markets

Nearby prices were unchanged with new crop unchanged to up 75 cents this week at the crush plants. USDA released the latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report last week. USDA increased soybean ending stocks for the 2023-24 marketing year to 340 million bushels (mb), up 25 mb from March's estimate, reflecting changes to exports, seed, and residual usage. The ending stocks figure was more than the trade expected. USDA left production and beginning stocks unchanged. Globally, USDA made only minor revisions to supply and demand, dropping ending stocks by 0.05 million metric tons (mmt) to 114.22 mmt. USDA left Brazilian soybean production unchanged at 155 mmt, matching the high end of pre-report estimates. Argentine soybean production was also untouched at 50 mmt. The trade expected an increase for Argentina and a decrease for Brazil. There is still time to adjust plans to take advantage of the market opportunities that sunflowers can offer. USDA pegged a 31% decrease in oil-type planted acres from 2023. Something to consider is how well sunflowers performed last year. Confections had a record high yield while oil-types had the second highest yield on record for the U.S. With crop insurance prices of $23.80 for oils and $28.80 for confections and much lower acres, diversifying market risk with some sunflower acres would be a good option in 2024.

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