Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Oct 01 2018

Crop Progress

Sunflower harvest is underway in the Dakotas, as well as in Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas. Minnesota reports 13 percent of the crop there harvested and 67 percent of the sunflower crop in Minnesota is rated in good to excellent condition.

Crop Progress - Monday, October 1, 2018

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Bracts Yellow	95	90	93	84
Mature	75	57	63	54
Harvested	6	1	2	2
South Dakota
Harvested	3	1	---	1
Minnesota
Harvested	13	4	0	7
Kansas
Harvested	6	---	3	3
Texas
Harvested	NA	66	55	56

Crop Conditions - Monday, October 1, 2018

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	0	7	30	59	4
Minnesota	0	2	31	56	11
Colorado	1	4	29	62	4

NSA Receives Specialty Grants

The North Dakota Department of Agriculture has awarded the National Sunflower Association $120,309 to apply genomic tools to accelerate breeding for disease resistance in confection sunflower. In addition, $28,000 was awarded to NDSU for managing sclerotinia head rot in confection sunflowers with partially resistant hybrids. The money is a part of 25 grants the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved totaling over $3 million given to promote the development, cultivation, production, and sales of specialty crops in North Dakota.

Are Your Bins Ready?

As harvest approaches, take time to make sure your bins are ready. Bins with perforated floors work better for drying sunflower than those with ducts. Aeration is essential, especially in larger bins. Aeration may be accomplished with floor mounted ducts or portable aerators. Aeration fans should deliver 1/10 to 1 cfm per cwt of sunflower. If aeration is not available, sunflower should be rotated between bins to avoid hot spots developing in the stored grain. Click here for more on harvest and storage.

Minnesota Cooperative Rolls Out New Platform for Farm Stewardship Management

Minneapolis-based farmer cooperative Land O’Lakes has rolled out a new software program to help farmers look at various stewardship practices and the effects on their lands. The software, called Truterra Insights Engine, will provide more knowledge to farmers about soil and water conservation practices and give input to retailers and crop advisers who use the program to talk with producers about stewardship. Truterra also shows how farmers can tap into USDA conservation programs to help pay for such farm practices. Initially, Truterra will be promoted, used, and integrated by retailers that are already part of Land O’Lakes’ SUSTAIN network. Click here to learn more.

Upcoming Events

November 27-28, 2018- Ag Horizons, Pierre, SD
December 4, 2018 –High Plains Committee Meeting, Goodland, KS
January 9-10, 2019 – NSA Research Forum, Holiday Inn, Fargo, ND
June 25-27, 2019 – NSA Summer Seminar, Medora, ND

Markets

2019 new crop sunflower prices are out at the ND crush plants with cash and Act of God (AOG) contracts available. 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 AOG $16.50 contract increases to $18.15 and the cash $17.00 contract moves up to $18.70. Nearby prices at the crush plants ended the week mixed at down 5 cents to unchanged. USDA reported old crop sunflower stocks in all positions on September 1, 2018 totaled 386 million pounds, down 35 percent from a year ago. All stocks stored on farms totaled 90.6 million pounds and off-farm stocks totaled 295 million pounds. Stocks of oil type sunflower seed are 279 million pounds; of this total, 81.6 million pounds are on-farm stocks and 197 million pounds are off-farm stocks. Non-oil sunflower stocks totaled 107 million pounds, with 9.00 million pounds stored on the farm and 98.1 million pounds stored off the farm. Some harvest activity has begun, and early results are promising as sunflowers handled the weather extremes in the upper Midwest once again.

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, October 1, 2018 ($/CWT)

	Deliver	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change	2019 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil	Nearby	32.28	28.26	29.01	+.75	29.31
Fargo, ND	NuSun	17.00	17.25	17.25	NC	17.00
Fargo, ND	High Oleic	17.00	17.25	17.25	NC	17.00
Enderlin, ND	NuSun	16.55	17.15	17.10	-.05	17.00
Enderlin, ND	High Oleic	NQ	17.35	17.35	NC	17.00
Goodland, KS	NuSun	16.45	16.95	16.85	-.10	NQ
Goodland, KS	High Oleic	17.45	18.10	18.00	-.10	NQ

Prices recorded here are believed to be reliable at the time of posting. All prices are subject to change. Contact these facilities for complete market details.

U.S. CRUDE OIL VALUES recorded on October 1, 2018
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. location)

	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change
Soybean Oil	30.02	27.76	28.51	+.75
Cotton Oil (psby)	31.28	27.52	28.31	+.79
Corn Oil	37.50	30.00	30.00	NC