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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Feb 20 2024

Sunflower Production Update set for February 27

Sunflower producers and crop advisers interested in sunflower production management updates should plan to participate in the Zoom conference ‘2024 Getting-it-Right in Sunflower Production’ on Tuesday, February 27 from 8:30 a.m. to noon CST. The program will be conducted by North Dakota State University Extension and is supported by NSA. Topics that will be covered range from sunflower agronomy, hybrid data, soil considerations and plant nutrition, updates for weed, disease and insect management, and a market update. Attendees will receive a list of several pertinent extension sunflower production resources as reference materials and are supplemental to the presentations. The presentations will be recorded and archived.   Certified crop adviser continuing education credits will be available for meeting participants. Pre-registration is required at: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/getting-it-right. This site also has video links to the previous sunflower production meeting. All who preregister will receive emailed instructions on how to participate in the meeting. The program is free of charge.

Upcoming North Dakota County Elections

Growers are invited to attend elections in their county for the sunflower representatives to the North Dakota Oilseed Council. Elections are being held in several areas in February. Here’s a list by county: Benson County: February 22, 10:00 a.m., Benson County Courthouse Courtroom, Minnewaukan McIntosh County: February 26, 1:00 p.m., American Legion, Ashley  District elections will be held in March. For more information, visit www.oilseedcouncil.nd.gov

Markets

The crop insurance price discovery process continues for 2024 crop insurance price elections. Oil type sunflowers are $24.00, and confections are $29.00 per cwt. both are up 10 cents from last week. To follow sunflower price election trends, watch the 2024 CBoT December soyoil contract through February 29. Final price elections will be announced in early March. USDA updated its statistical guesses at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum last week. USDA pegged soybean acres at 87.5 million acres, which would be 3.9 million more acres than 2023.  USDA forecasts soybean production to rise 8% to 4.5 billion bushels. Ending stocks for 2024/25 are projected at 435 million bushels, up 120 million bushels from the 2023/24 season. That would put the ending stocks-to-use ratio at nearly 10%, the highest since 2019/20. USDA expects lower corn acres for the 2024/25 crop year with 91 million acres planted which is 3.6 million acres less than 2023. USDA is projecting a 15.04-billion-bushel crop. Ending corn stocks are expected to be higher with the stocks-to-use ratio climbing to 17.2%, which would be the highest since 2005/06 if realized. Total wheat planted acres are projected at 47.0 million acres, down nearly 2.6 million acres from the 2023/24 crop. Wheat production is expected to be 5% above 2023/24 at 1.9 billion bushels and would be the highest in five years. The first estimate of 2024 sunflower acres will be in the USDA March Planting Intentions report.

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