Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Jun 01 2020

Crop Progress

Sunflower planting is three-quarters done in Minnesota, while North Dakota reports 40% of the crop planted and 3% emerged.

Crop Progress - Monday, June 1, 2020

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Planted	40	17	37	57
Emerged	3	NA	5	13
South Dakota
Planted	23	8	NA	24
Kansas
Planted	33	28	13	13
Minnesota
Planted	75	47	68	87
Colorado
Planted	40	27	6	11
Texas
Planted	45	20	48	55

Still plenty of time to plant sunflower

As the optimal planting window is closing on some crops, there is still time to take advantage of the market opportunities that sunflowers can offer. Late season planted crops like sunflower can be planted until late June and can perform well with the markets rewarding that production. Final planting dates for crop insurance purposes in North Dakota are June 10 or 15; South Dakota is June 15 or 20 and all of Minnesota is June 15. In the High Plains final dates in Colorado are June 15, 20 or 25; Nebraska is June 15 or 20 and all of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are June 25. The actual final date that sunflowers can be planted is anywhere from 20 to 25 days after this date depending on the county. To find the final planting date by county click here.

Grower report

Bismarck, ND producer Clark Coleman’s sunflower crop is ahead of schedule; he finished planting about 10 days ago. Coleman planted just under 3,000 acres of sunflower this year, mostly high oleic with about 700 acres of confection sunflower.

Markets

Nearby NuSun and high oleic prices were unchanged in the past week. NuSun nearby prices are trading $2.15-$2.45, with high oleic $2.00-$2.35 per cwt. higher than a year ago at this same time. New crop prices were also unchanged. Sunflower planting continues in all states and is about equal to last year at this same time but behind the five-year average in the Dakotas and Minnesota. Planting progress in the High Plains states aided by good planting conditions is significantly ahead of last year and the five-year average. In the past week, producers made good progress and planted an additional 272,350 acres pushing 2020 planted acres to about 507,000 acres. This represents 34% of this year’s projected planted acres and is behind the five-year average of 46%. On the CBoT, commodities have been trading higher on optimism about demand as the U.S. dollar weakens, making U.S. products more attractive to overseas buyers. The dollar has declined about 1.25% in the past week, which could incentivize overseas buyers to purchase agricultural products. Traders are also keeping an eye on trade relations between the U.S. and China as the sides escalate saber rattling over Hong Kong and the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This could lead to reduced purchases of U.S. ag products by China if tensions rise. Drier and warmer than normal weather conditions are forecast for the Dakotas and Minnesota and should allow for good planting progress in the week ahead.