Sunflower Highlights
Post Date: Oct 13 2020
Crop progress
Harvest is well ahead of last year in all reporting states. Minnesota reports 41% of the sunflower crop harvested, compared to 24% at this time last year, and it looks to be a good harvest there: 77% of the sunflower in Minnesota are rated good to excellent condition.
Crop Progress - Tuesday, October 13, 2020
State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average
North Dakota        
Mature 89 80 66 86
Harvested 24 16 3 10
South Dakota        
Harvested 19 6 --- 9
Minnesota        
Harvested 41 24 0 25
Colorado        
Harvested 39 13 32 12
Kansas        
Harvested 22 4 14 10
Texas        
Harvested 73 70 72 67
Crop Conditions - Tuesday, October 13, 2020
State Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent
North Dakota 3 14 31 49 3
Minnesota 3 3 17 70 7
Colorado 1 10 77 12 0
Grower report
Crookston, MN grower Kevin Capistran is “cautiously optimistic” about this year’s sunflower harvest. He started harvest a little earlier than normal and says he could finish later this week. He says despite some Phomopsis issues, he estimates yields to be around 2,500 lbs. 
Reduce the risk of combine fires
As sunflower harvest gets underway, a reminder about reducing the risk of combine fires this harvest season. Be sure to keep a clean work area when harvesting sunflower. Blow the combine and grain dryer setup with an air hose daily. Also, try nighttime harvesting, when humidity levels are higher. And keep a small pressure sprayer filled with water on hand in the combine. For more information, click here.
Call for papers
Here’s your chance to be a part of the National Sunflower Association’s Research Forum. We’re looking for research papers to be presented at the Forum, which will be held virtually via Zoom on January 13-14, 2021. Presentations may be either oral or in the form of a poster. A time will be designated for authors to present their posters and answer questions. Each oral presentation will be limited to 10-12 minutes with 2-3 minutes allowed for questions. If you are interested in presenting at the Forum, click here to submit your application on our website. You do not have to submit the actual paper or poster at this time, just the information indicated online and the author information. Submissions must be completed by November 13, 2020. If you plan to attend, registration will be open on our website soon.
Syngenta acquires Italian biological company
Syngenta Group announced it acquired Valagro, a biological company based in Atessa, Italy. This purchase gives the company a stronger foothold into biologicals and asserts their commitment to its ‘Good Growth Plan’ to improve environmental sustainability. Valagro has been an active player in the ag market for 40 years, serving Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. It has more than 700 employees, 13 subsidiaries and eight production sites around the world. The company will continue to sell its biological products with its own branding and distribution channels. Syngenta will help scale up production and enable more research. 
Upcoming events
January 13-14, 2021
NSA Virtual Research Forum

June 22-24, 2021
NSA Summer Seminar Duluth, MN
 
 
Markets
Nearby prices at the crush plants were up 15-55 cents this week as crushers and processors compete for seed delivery. 2021 new crop moved 15 cents higher. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 175,000 acres pushing 2020 harvested acres to about 383,000 acres. This represents 25% of this year’s projected harvested acres and is significantly ahead of the five-year average of 10%. Harvest progress is about two to four weeks ahead of last year at this same time. Last week, USDA pegged 2020 sunflower production at 2.81 billion pounds, up 44 percent from the revised 2019 production of 1.96 billion pounds. USDA added 19 million pounds to 2019 oil sunflower production and shaved off 6.6 million pounds from non-oil production. Area planted, at 1.70 million acres, is up 10 percent from the June estimate and up 26 percent from last year. US sunflower growers are expected to harvest 1.62 million acres, up 29 percent from last year. The overall average yield for all sunflower types is forecast, at 1,730 pounds per acre. This is 170 pounds higher than last year’s yield and will be just one pound less than the record high average yield on record, if realized. The forecasted production in North Dakota would make it the leading sunflower producing state this year, at 1.23 billion pounds, up 64 percent from 2019. In South Dakota, production is forecast at 1.11 billion pounds up 33 percent from last year.
Weekly Prices Recorded on Tuesday, October 13, 2020 ($/CWT)
  Deliver Last Year Last Week This Week Change 2021 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil Nearby 29.90 32.81 33.72 +.91 32.87
West Fargo, ND NuSun 18.55 16.90 17.45 +.55 NQ
West Fargo, ND High Oleic 18.80 17.05 17.45 +.40 NQ
Enderlin, ND NuSun 18.50 16.95 17.35 +.40 17.85
Enderlin, ND High Oleic 18.70 17.15 17.55 +.40 18.10
Goodland, KS NuSun 16.95 17.40 17.55 +.15 NQ
Goodland, KS High Oleic 18.20 18.40 18.55 +.15 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 Tuesday, October 13, 2020
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. location)
  Last Year Last Week This Week Change
Soybean Oil 29.64 32.81 33.84 +1.06
Cotton Oil (psby) 39.00 47.81 48.62 +.81
Corn Oil 30.00 65.00 65.00 NC
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