Several members of the National Sunflower Association’s board of directors recently visited Washington, DC. Members made visits to members of Congress from Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, North and South Dakota about the upcoming Farm Bill and Fiscal Year 2027 appropriations. In addition, the group met with officials from the USDA APHIS/Wildlife Services to discuss blackbird depredation concerns and USDA Agricultural Research Service regarding research needs.

Members shown, left to right: Cameron Peirce (Hutchinson, KS), Josh Greff (Regent, ND), Tom Kirkmeyer (Brighton, CO), Chuck Todd (Onida, SD), Tom Dowdle (Kennedy, MN)

If you missed the ‘2026 Getting-it-Right in Sunflower Production,’ video conference you can access it on-line. Topics covered ranged from hybrid data, soil considerations and plant nutrition, updates for blackbird, weed, disease and insect management, and a market update. The program was conducted by North Dakota State University Extension. Recording and resources are available at https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/getting-it-right, scroll to the conference video section and click the sunflower meeting link. Each individual talk has its own video clip. Additional publications and resources are available under the sunflower conference resources.

Nearby sunflower prices were unchanged to up 15 cents at the crush plants last week. New crop was unchanged. RMA has calculated crop insurance prices for spring crops. On the sunflower side, the projected price is 22% higher than last year at $29.40 for oil-type sunflower and 17% higher for confection sunflower at $37.60. USDA updated its statistical guesses at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum. USDA pegged soybean acres at 85 million acres, which would be 3.8 million more acres than 2025.  USDA forecasts soybean production to rise to 4.45 billion bushels. Ending stocks for 2026/27 are projected at 355 million bushels, up 5 million bushels from the 2025/26 season. USDA expects lower corn acres for the 2026/27 crop year with 94 million acres planted which is 4.8 million acres lower than 2025. USDA is projecting a 15.76 billion bushel crop. Ending stocks are expected to be lower for the 2026/27 crop, at 1.837 billion bushels. Total wheat planted acres are projected at 45 million acres, down nearly 300,000 acres from the 2025/26 crop. Wheat production is expected to be 1.86 billion bushels. Ending wheat stocks are expected to rise to 933 million bushels. The first estimate of 2025 sunflower acres will be in the USDA March Planting Intentions report.

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