|
 |
May 14, 2012
|
Planting Progress
Sunflower planting continues at a steady pace in all different stages across the mid-section of the county in the primary sunflower producing states. Field stages range from in bloom in south Texas to pre-plant in many areas of the northern plains.
|
USDA CROP PROGRESS as of May 14, 2012
according to USDA Weekly Crop Weather |
| |
State |
This Week |
Last Week |
Last Year |
5 Year Average |
| |
Minnesota |
|
|
|
|
| |
Planted |
40% |
14% |
2% |
14% |
| |
North Dakota |
|
|
|
|
| |
Planted |
14% |
4% |
0% |
4% |
| |
South Dakota |
|
|
|
|
| |
Planted |
1% |
0% |
1% |
1% |
| |
Texas |
|
|
|
|
| |
Planted |
50% |
36% |
32% |
32% |
| |
Colorado |
|
|
|
|
| |
Planted |
7% |
2% |
1% |
5% |
| |
Kansas |
|
|
|
|
| |
Planted |
5% |
0% |
1% |
1% |
NSA Summer Seminar Breakout Sessions
Make plans now to escape to the lake for the NSA's 30th Summer Seminar in Alexandria, Minn. Join us on June 26-28 for an informative and fun event. One of the afternoon breakout sessions on Wednesday afternoon will include Ryan Bond of BASF and Bob Weigelt of DuPont Crop Protection. The two company reps will talk about developments and technologies pertaining to herbicide-tolerant Clearfield and Express hybrids. The 45-minute session will provide information on new advancements in this important technology. Register for the three-day event at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, Minn. on the NSA website Summer Seminar. Click on the "Register Now" button at the bottom of the page.
|
SNP Project Making Progress
Good progress continues to be made in the NSA-SNP Sunflower Consortium. Researchers are in the process of developing an improved gene map. A gene map is much like a highway map giving breeders specific directions as they transfer candidate genes in their breeding programs. The gene map under construction now is a high density map which means that it is much more precise. This is made possible as more breeding lines have been analyzed for their gene content. Single gene events such as rust resistance have already been precisely mapped. Other more complex gene sets for resistance to Sclerotinia and Phomopsis will be part of the new map that will be available at the end of June 2012. Seed company members of the NSA-SNP Consortium can now begin marker assisted breeding projects to take advantage of this new technology. The NSA-SNP Consortium is a private-public partnership of commercial seed companies, USDA-ARS, BioDiagnostics and the National Sunflower Association.
|
Grower Profiles
With record-high temperatures and little-to-no precipitation in the forecast this week, sunflower planting in the Dakotas and Minnesota should make rapid progress this week. This year is proving to be in stark contrast to last year for growers in these areas. Northwestern Minnesota grower and NSA board member, Kevin Capistran finished up planting last week, well ahead schedule. This year's sunflower crop went in nearly a month ahead of last year's. Northern North Dakota producer and NSA board member, Jeff Oberholtzer, says he and his neighbors are nearing 100% planted of all crops. Last year at this time they hadn't even started planting due to excessive moisture. In fact, almost 90% of Oberholtzer's land did not get seeded at all last year when the planting window closed and moisture prevented them from accessing much of their land. He's hoping to be planting his roughly 1,400 acres of oil sunflower in less than a week, but sees his neighbors already planting their confection sunflower crops nearby.
|
USDA Asking Farmers to Assist with Land Count
USDA's National Ag Statistics Service (NASS) conducts the June Area Survey each year to develop comprehensive estimates of land uses across the U.S. Next month, the survey will sample nearly 50,000 producers on approximately 11,000 selected segments of land to get an indication of the production and supply of major commodities for 2012. The survey is done online, by mail or by phone, personnel visits randomly selected tracts of land to interview growers. The information is critical to several key national reports including the annual Acreage report and the quarterly Grain Stocks report, both to be released on June 29. Survey data also contributes to NASS's monthly and annual Crop Production reports and various other crop and livestock-related publications which the National Sunflower Association relies on for current data on sunflower acres in the major production regions. As with all NASS surveys, information provided by respondents is confidential by law. All reports are available on the NASS website: www.nass.usda.gov.
|
Reminder to Monitor Stored Sunflower
Growers planning on hanging onto sunflower until this summer hoping for a bump in price are reminded to keep a close watch on seed moisture levels. Some receiving facilities are seeing high moistures on in-bound seed at over 8% and higher. Some heat damage is being reported that occurred early, when the seed went into the bin wet, and now dried over the winter. Once heat damage happens, it doesn't take much to start heating again. This is also the time of year people start seeing hot spots as warm days and cool nights lead to condensation in the bin. According to the NDSU Extension Service, oil seeds to be kept through the spring/summer should be stored at 8% moisture or less. It's wise to have bins probed and tested regularly to protect your investment. No one wins when seed goes out of condition.
|
Markets
The oilseed market took a beating late last week on heavy long-liquidation. Pressure came from nervousness in funds and profit taking. Last week's USDA report tightened the old crop ending stocks and projects record tight U.S. new crop ending stocks based on stocks-to-usage ratio and was supportive fundamentally. Sunflower seed stocks will be extremely tight by the end of the marketing year in September. With the USDA supply and demand report factored into the market, traders will turn to planting progress in the days ahead. In the near term, weather conditions should allow oilseed planting to continue ahead of average. USDA is using March planting intentions in forecasting 2012 U.S. production. The trade has already upped its production estimates as the prospect for increased double crop soybean acres is a possibility given winter wheat maturity and harvest ahead of normal pace. Weather risk is nominal at the moment but should offer support if drier weather sets in. In the second half of this marketing year vegetable oil supply is expected to get tighter. The forecast reduction in supply is good news for sunflower and should be supportive to seed prices.
|
Daily Market News
For sunflower prices at various locations, refer to our Daily Market News page.
|
| Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, May 14, 2012 ($/CWT) |
| |
Deliver |
Last Year |
Last Week |
This Week |
Change |
New Crop |
| |
Chicago Oil |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Nearby |
55.75 |
53.21 |
50.80 |
-2.41 |
52.24 |
| |
Fargo, ND |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
NuSun May |
33.35 |
26.85 |
26.05 |
-.80 |
24.65 |
| |
NuSun June |
30.20 |
26.85 |
26.05 |
+.05 |
NQ |
| |
Enderlin, ND |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
NuSun May |
33.35 |
26.90 |
26.05 |
-.85 |
24.65 |
| |
NuSun June |
30.20 |
26.50 |
25.65 |
+.45 |
NQ |
| |
Goodland, KS |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
NuSun May |
31.70 |
26.75 |
25.85 |
-.90 |
25.50 |
| |
NuSun June |
31.15 |
26.75 |
25.85 |
+.05 |
NQ |
|
|
