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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Aug 08 2022

Crop Progress - Monday, August 8, 2022 State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average North Dakota         Blooming 49 24 72 69 Texas         Harvested NA 29 34 31

Crop Conditions - Monday, August 8, 2022 State Timeframe Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent North Dakota This week 0 2 21 68 6   Last week 0 1 17 74 8 Minnesota This week 0 0 16 77 7   Last week 0 0 20 71 9 Colorado This week 3 10 40 43 4   Last week 1 13 51 33 2

Keep Scouting for Insects

s sunflower fields begin to bloom, adults of red sunflower seed weevil (RSSW) will be emerging and will fly to the nearest flowering sunflowers. Trap catches for banded sunflower moth (BSM) and Arthuri sunflower moths (SM) have increased in the last week. See maps on NDSU’s IPM website: Sunflower Insect Trap — ND IPM (ndsu.edu) Severe infestations of RSSW and moths can be very damaging to the sunflower head and result in seed loss. Once the decision to treat has been made, it is critical to time the spray application correctly to get effective management of all sunflower head insects including RSSW, BSM, SM, and Lygus bug. The best sunflower plant stage to treat is when the majority of plants are in the R5.1 growth stage. To read more about scouting for insects and the best treatments, visit www.sunflowernsa.com/growers/Insects/.

Scout for Grasshoppers

Be vigilant on scouting for grasshoppers. Adult grasshoppers are becoming more common. NDSU IPM Scouts detected increasing numbers in most areas of North Dakota last week. See maps on NDSU’s IPM website: Grasshoppers - IPM Crop Survey Maps | NDSU Agriculture and Extension

Markets

Traders are continuing to get into position for USDA’s August crop reports. August 12th will be a huge day for commodity markets as USDA will release its latest supply and demand reports. It is also anticipated that the first report of USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) certified acres will be released as well. The FSA figures will be compared to the USDA June acreage report and will give the market a better idea of what got planted this year. The market is also watching developments in the brokered agreement for shipping grain from Ukraine. The first on-water shipment of corn out of Ukraine since the start of the war departed from Odessa.  An estimated 25 million metric tons of grain remains trapped in Ukraine. It's still unclear about the path vessels will take on their journey back to Odessa, and issues about insuring the ships and hiring adequate crews to run them remain. Sunflowers are mostly in the late bud stage or blooming in the Dakotas and Minnesota. The crop could use a good drink during this important development phase as most areas of the region have had little to no measurable moisture in over three weeks. The long-range weather forecast does not bode well for a break in the weather pattern as hot and dry weather is expected to dominate the month of August. USDA reports and weather conditions will guide traders in the coming weeks.

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