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Drought Plagues Sunflower Crop Quality in the Dakotas
North Dakota Ag Connection - 09/20/2017

Colorado's sunflower crop is doing well, with 80 percent of the crop reported in good to excellent condition. In Minnesota, 86 percent of the sunflower crop is rated good to excellent. Sixty-nine percent of the Kansas crop is good to excellent, reports the National Sunflower Association.

Meanwhile, drought continues to plague the Dakotas with North Dakota reporting only 35 percent of its crop in good to excellent shape and South Dakota has only 26 percent of its crop rated good to excellent.

Bismarck, N.D., area producer Clark Coleman says his sunflower crop is looking pretty good. The fields are starting to mature and he says harvest will be there soon. He decided not to desiccate the crop this year, as there are not a lot of blackbirds in the area. He hopes to start harvest on his 1,000 acres of high oleic sunflowers in the next couple of weeks.

A visit to sunflower fields at this time of year can provide information on what diseases you might face in future years. This is particularly true with stem diseases. Two stem diseases (charcoal rot and verticillium wilt) tend to be more common in dry years, while Phoma, Phomopsis, and Sclerotinia stalk rot tend to be more common in years with adequate or excessive moisture. Learn more about these and other diseases on the National Sunflower Association website.


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