Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: May 05 2025

2025 Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship winner announced

Senta Kyzer grew up in Kronach, a small town in the north of Bavaria, Germany. She completed her bachelor’s degree in biology at Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg in December 2021 and then continued with a Master’s in Cell and Molecular Biology at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen. As part of her master’s, she completed a three-month internship at North Dakota State University, working at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in the Sunflower Improvement Research Unit. During this internship, she helped assemble a new sunflower genome, including phased haplotypes, using PacBio Revio HiFi reads, Illumina short reads, and Omni-C libraries. Their work focused on identifying traits related to anthocyanin production and male fertility on chromosome 11. This internship led her to the decision to return to Fargo and continue her work with sunflowers. She started her PhD program at NDSU in Phenomics, Genomics and Bioinformatics with focus on Bioinformatics in spring 2025. She’s planning to expand the sunflower genome assembly project to include at least 18 more sunflower lines.

Markets

Nearby sunflower prices were unchanged to up 30 cents with new crop unchanged at the crush plants this week. On the CBoT, the soy complex remains under pressure from a brisk planting pace and favorable conditions in much of the Midwest, as well as slowing exports and concern U.S. tariffs could hurt global demand. Soyoil has led the way lower behind pressure from slumping crude petroleum oil futures, which are trading at the market’s lowest level in over four years amid recession fears. In addition, a continued lack of federal guidance on biofuels mandates appears to burden soyoil. The recent U.S. EIA report showed that soybean oil used to produce biofuels in the United States fell to 576 million lbs. in February. In January, soyoil used in biodiesel production was 654 million lbs. Also weighing on commodity prices are concerns about the trade war between the U.S. and China and its effects on shipments of agricultural goods. The U.S. has imposed tariffs of 145% on imports of Chinese goods, and China retaliated with levies of 125% on U.S. products. Rhetoric between the two countries, the world’s largest economies, eased in recent weeks with both sides saying they’d like to negotiate, though no formal talks have been announced. With South American oilseed harvest wrapping up, the attention of the oilseed market will shift to North American demand news, weather, crop conditions and production prospects in the months ahead.

Malathion approved in South Dakota for RSSW

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) request for Malathion use on sunflowers to control resistant Red Sunflower Seed Weevils (RSSW). The following products will have a 24c SLN label for sunflowers, and have the current Section 3 labels in South Dakota:

• Helena Agri-Enterprises, LLC, Fyfanon Malathion Insecticide (EPA reg. 5905-196).
• Drexel, Malathion 5EC (EPA reg. 19713-217);
• Loveland Products, Malathion 57 EC, (EPA reg. 34704-108);
• FMC- FYFANON 57% EC (EPA reg. 279-3607); and
• Winfield Solutions, LLC -Malathion 5 (EPA reg. 9779-5).

Application dates for the product will be from July 15th to August 31st.

Registration is now open for our 2025 NSA Summer Seminar, scheduled for June 24-26, 2025. This year’s Summer Seminar will be held in Bismarck, North Dakota. You can register on our website – go to 2025 NSA Summer Seminar You’ll find our tentative schedule too, as well as hotel information and more. Pre-registration will begin at $375 and golf at $130, so register early for the best price. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Radisson Hotel Bismarck. To reserve your room, call 701-255-6000 or online https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/du92l1. The rate is $129.00 per night plus taxes. The block of rooms will expire on May 23, 2025. The program is being finalized, and more information will be coming soon. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt at tinam@sunflowernsa.com with questions.

Upcoming Events

June 24-26, 2025 - NSA Summer Seminar; Bismarck, ND

Markets at a Glance

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, May 5, 2025 ($/CWT)

	Deliver	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change	2025 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil	Nearby	43.17	49.91	48.35	-1.56	48.59
West Fargo, ND	High Oleic	13.75	26.75	27.00	+.25	22.55
Enderlin, ND	High Oleic	15.00	26.20	26.50	+.30	22.70
Lamar, CO	High Oleic	16.00	27.00	27.00	NC	23.00

U.S. CRUDE OIL VALUES recorded on Monday, May 5, 2025
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. locations)

	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change
Soybean Oil	46.84	48.91	47.35	-1.56
Cotton Oil (pbsy)	68.84	74.91	73.35	-1.56
Corn Oil	57.00	49.00	49.00	NC

Prices recorded here are believed to be reliable at the time of posting. Individual companies have the right to correct any errors that may occur. Contact these facilities for complete market details.

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