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.

There is still time to submit applications for the National Sunflower Association’s Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship. Scholarship funds assist students who study in the field of agriculture with a special emphasis on sunflower production, promotion, or research. Preference will be given to students who are in their last two years of undergraduate studies or in graduate level studies and have maintained at least a cumulative 3.0 GPA on a 4.0=A scale. Application deadline is April 1, 2026. A total of $5,000 is available for the scholarship this year. Applications can be submitted online. Visit www.ndcf.net/receive/scholarships/stern.html  to learn more.  Contact Tina Mittelsteadt at tinam@sunflowernsa.com with any questions.

Nearby prices are unchanged to up 25 cents with new crop prices down 10 cents to unchanged this week at the crush plants. This week expect a lot of market chatter about projected U.S. planted acreage. USDA releases its first official planted acreage estimates in the March Prospective Plantings Report on Tuesday March 31. The March numbers typically change following planting, but it is the first look at acres for traders. Changes could be in store in the June 30 Acreage Report depending on how planting goes this spring.  A cool and wet spring has the potential to throw off planting progress and rotations. Without favorable planting weather across the Northern and High Plains states in the coming weeks acreage shifts could occur. As a result, planted acres are likely to remain a moving target for the next couple months leading to market volatility. Traders are hoping for an ideal growing season with good yields to restock domestic supplies. As always, mother nature has the final say in what gets planted. Market analysts are forecasting planted area about 45 million acres for wheat (down from 45.3 million acres in 2025), 94 million acres for corn (down from 98.8 million acres) and 85 million acres for soybeans (up from 81.2 million acres). Traders will use the USDA acreage estimates as the starting point for supply and demand estimates for the 2026/27 marketing year. Traders will also focus on South American oilseed production prospects.

With fertilizer prices at high levels and producers looking to control costs, check out the North Dakota Nitrogen Calculator for sunflower. You can find the calculator at https://lamp.ndsu.edu/soils/FourCropsNitrogenCalculatorWebApp/ The calculator uses new nitrogen recommendations, which were updated for the first time since the 1970s. There are also new recommendations for phosphorus (P) for sunflower in the northern Great Plains. The new N and P recommendations are based on general productivity history and not a yield prediction model. N and P recommendations are based on both documented yield responses to each and economic analysis. The calculator does not immediately support sunflower prices above 30 cents per pound or N prices greater than $1/lb N. However, if you divide each value (sunflower price AND N cost) by 2, and insert these values into the calculator, the proper N recommendation will result. The NDSU Fertilizing Sunflower Circular SF713 with the new recommendations can be found online at: SF713 Fertilizing Sunflower [2016].indd (sunflowernsa.com)

Please note that our telephone number has changed. Our new contact number is: 701-712-0095. Please update your records accordingly. All other contact details remain the same.

June 23-25, 2026 - NSA Summer Seminar; Deadwood, SD

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