Christensen retired in 2025 after a career spanning more than four decades in the sunflower industry. He most recently served as an account manager for ADM Processing, supporting the Enderlin, North Dakota, oilseed crushing facility—an operation he had been associated with since 1983. Over the course of his career, he worked as a buyer for the facility’s original owners, served as Vice President of Marketing for its second owners (National Sun Industries), and, beginning in 1994, held a variety of roles with ADM.

Christensen played a key role in efforts to restart the Enderlin facility after financial difficulties impacted the original owners. His support of the sunflower industry included advancing high-oleic sunflower crushing in Enderlin, contributing to the industry’s transition from linoleic to NuSun in 2000, and supporting the later conversion to high-oleic sunflowers as today’s Industry standard. He was also active in promoting sunflower acreage by introducing grower production contracts that helped producers with marketing and risk management. Throughout his career, he regularly attended grower-focused events and shared current market insights to help producers identify and pursue successful strategies.

Christensen served on the National Sunflower Association (NSA) Board of Directors for 12 years and spent 18 years on the selection committee for the Curt Stern Memorial Scholarship.

Nearby sunflower prices were up 35 to 40 cents this week with new crop up 40 to 50 cents at the North Dakota crush plants. ADM rolled out a $22.60 new crop bid at Pingree, ND last week. The new crop price at Colorado Mills was down 30 cents. 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. The markets were dominated by the Middle East conflict for most of last week. The oilseed complex has ongoing support from rallying crude petroleum oil and soyoil prices amid concern over Iran war disruptions. On Tuesday, USDA will release its latest monthly Supply and Demand report. The trade will be watching for any adjustments to the U.S. and global soybean balance sheets, as well as any changes to South American production.  The report isn’t expected to show any major revisions to grain and soybean balance sheets. The agency’s annual Prospective Plantings and quarterly Grain Stocks reports on March 31 likely will carry a bigger market impact. According to most traders the next major round of USDA reports in late March will set the tone for prices. Needless to say, the market will be closely monitoring developments in the Middel East in the near term, along with export demand news and South American oilseed production prospects.

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.

Tired of carrying around those thick pest management guides? Download the NDSU Pest Management app -- it includes everything that is printed in pest management guides, plus more. For example, the app has full color photos of weeds, insects, and diseases. The app is available for both Apple and Android devices – just search NDSU Pest Management or go to NDSU Pest Management App | NDSU Agriculture and Extension. The app is free, thanks to funding from several commodity groups, including the National Sunflower Association. Producers who use the app are encouraged to send comments and feedback to ndsu.pest.management@ndsu.edu

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

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