Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Aug 14 2017

Crop Progress

Sunflower harvest is 30 percent complete in Texas, while in the Dakotas the sunflower fields are blooming - North Dakota reports 87 percent of the sunflower crop is blooming and in South Dakota 64 percent of the crop is blooming.

Crop Progress - Monday, August 14, 2017

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Blooming	87	69	93	77
Petals Dry	4	0	8	NA
South Dakota
Blooming	64	38	69	67
Kansas
Blooming	55	37	69	57
Texas
Harvested	30	20	14	17

Crop Conditions - Monday, August 14, 2017

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	15	21	39	24	1
South Dakota	10	22	58	10	0
Minnesota	0	0	9	74	17
Colorado	0	2	15	76	7
Kansas	0	3	34	58	5

Make Sunflower Harvest a Top Priority This Year

Successful sunflower growers that deal with blackbird pressure have found it helps to desiccate the sunflower crop and harvest early, before the birds move in. The grower might be able to get by without desiccating, but why take a chance when it comes to blackbirds? It will mean extra money in the bank this fall. Here are some helpful links:

Markets

Farmers have taken advantage of the recent rally in birdfood prices as a lot of crop was traded in the past few weeks. Birdfood prices were as high as $22 per cwt but have since backed off into a range of $18-$19 on the increased sales. Prices at the crush plants have also been on the increase gaining $3.70 per cwt since the market low was set. Nearby prices ended the week mixed at unchanged to up 20 cents. Beneficial rain was received in some of the most drought stricken areas of the Dakotas last week. More precipitation will be needed during the remainder of the sunflower growing season to ensure good crop development. USDA shocked traders with a bearish crop production forecast for 2017 soybeans and corn last week. USDA’s rosier than expected production forecast sent CBoT contracts into a tailspin. Farmers and traders had been expecting a much more bearish forecast from USDA because of drought and other poor weather conditions. USDA estimated the US 2017 soybean crop at 4,381 million bushels, which if realized would be a new record. Traders were expecting a number closer to 4,212 million bushels. USDA estimates for global corn, soybean and wheat 2017/18 end stocks were also negative. The trade will continue to digest the USDA numbers in the near term. This and weather reports will control price direction.