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Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Jun 15 2020

Crop Progress

Sunflower planting is finished in Minnesota, and North Dakota reports 79% of the crop planted.

Crop Progress - Monday, June 15, 2020 State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average North Dakota         Planted 79 60 80 91 Emerged 43 18 43 59 South Dakota         Planted 72 45 45 64 Kansas         Planted 66 49 52 53 Minnesota         Planted 100 95 99 95 Colorado         Planted 78 51 54 46 Texas         Planted 69 63 65 77

Crop Conditions - Monday, June 15, 2020 State Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent Minnesota 1 3 22 64 10

Grower report

Mott, ND area producer Josh Greff says his sunflower crop could use a nice rain. But he says despite the dry conditions, his 1,000 acres of sunflower look pretty good and are in the 2-3 leaf stage.

Coronavirus Food Assistance Program signup

Producer signup is underway for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), which will provide up to $16 billion in direct payments to deliver relief to America’s farmers and ranchers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. CFAP payments are available for eligible sunflower producers. Producers will be paid based on inventory subject to price risk held as of January 15, 2020. A payment will be made based on 50 percent of a producer’s 2019 total production or the 2019 inventory as of January 15, 2020, whichever is smaller, multiplied by the commodity’s applicable CARES Act and CCC payment rates. The payment rate from each funding source is 2 cents per pound for sunflowers.  Producers of all eligible commodities can apply through their local FSA office. Applications will be accepted through August 28, 2020. Click here to learn more.

Markets

Nearby and new crop prices have settled in the past few weeks remaining unchanged. 2020 new crop sunflower contracts are still available at the crush plants. Something else to consider is the oil premiums that crush plants pay on sunflower. Sunflower is the only oilseed that pays premiums for oil content above 40%. Considering oil premiums that are offered at the crush plants on oil content above 40% at a rate of 2% price premium for each 1% of oil above 40%; this pushes a contract with 45% oil content gross return 10% higher per cwt. The NuSun $16.80 contract increases to $18.50 and the high oleic $17.10 contract moves up to $18.80. Sunflower planting continues in all states and is equal to or ahead of last year at this same time. Apart from North Dakota and Texas, all states are now ahead of the five-year average planting pace. North Dakota producers are about a week behind the five-year average. In the past week, producers made excellent progress and planted an additional 314,000 acres pushing 2020 planted acres to about 1,116,000 acres. This represents 76% of this year’s projected planted acres and equal to the five-year average.  On the CBoT, traders remain optimistic about demand prospects as the U.S. dollar continues to weaken but are monitoring U.S.-China trade relations. The latest USDA supply and demand figures will also guide market direction in the week ahead.