Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Sep 03 2024

Crop Progress - Tuesday, September 3, 2024

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Blooming	95	90	99	98
Petals Dry	42	12	59	57
Bracts Yellow	5	--	23	24
South Dakota
Petals Dry	20	--	32	--
Bracts Yellow	1	--	4	--
Texas
Harvested	65	58	54	52

Crop Conditions - Tuesday, September 3, 2024

State	Timeframe	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	This week	1	5	22	66	6
	Last week	1	5	21	67	6
Minnesota	This week	0	1	24	64	11
	Last week	0	1	28	66	5
Colorado	This week	25	28	22	24	1
	Last week	18	20	21	39	2
South Dakota	This week	5	7	29	54	5
	Last week	1	9	23	61	6

Monitor for Phomopsis Stem Canker

With the sporadic rains, it is important to scout for Phomopsis stem canker and other sunflower diseases. For Phomopsis stem canker, a light to dark colored lesion develops on the stem, and a possible discoloration on the sunflower head. Mathew’s lab at North Dakota State University is needing sunflower plant samples that are suspected of Phomopsis stem canker. For information on how to send samples, please contact Febina Mathew (febina.mathew@ndsu.edu). The address to send samples (only diseased stem and/or head rot) is Febina Mathew, NDSU Plant Pathology Dept., 1402 Albrecht Blvd., 306 Walster Hall, Fargo, ND 58102. For more on Phomopsis stem canker visit: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/publications/sunflower-disease-diagnostic-series or Diseases (sunflowernsa.com).

Markets

Old and new crop prices were unchanged this week at the crush plants. The market continues to watch developments in the Black Sea region as drought conditions continue to threaten sunflower production. According to Oil World it is still too early for reliable damage estimates, but losses could be significant. Harvest has just started in Russia and Ukraine so more will be known in the weeks ahead. Oil World recently lowered its production estimates for Russia to 17.1 million metric tons (MMT) and Ukraine to 13.4 MMT. This is a significant drop off from last year’s production of 18.4 MMT in Russia and 14.9 in Ukraine. Other market estimates for Ukrainian production are in a range of 12.7-13.5 MMT. Oil World also made sizable downward revisions to production prospects in Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. The Hamburg based publication expects demand rationing will be inevitable in the months ahead due to lower beginning seed stocks and reduced global sunflower production. The situation bears watching as Russia and Ukraine are the largest exporters of sunflower oil. The potential reduced availability of sunflower seed and oil production poses risks for global markets and prices will be responsive to potential production shortfalls. Warmer than normal temps with dry weather conditions are expected over the next two weeks. This is welcome news as crop development for the most part remains behind the five-year average and will continue pushing the crop toward maturity in the Dakotas and Minnesota.

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