Sunflower Highlights
Post Date: Oct 19 2020
Crop Progress
Harvest is well ahead of average in many states, including North Dakota. North Dakota reports 44% of the sunflower crop harvested; that's compared to a five-year average of 22%.
Crop Progress - Monday, October 19, 2020
State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average
North Dakota        
Mature 95 89 84 94
Harvested 44 24 5 22
South Dakota        
Harvested 26 19 4 22
Minnesota        
Harvested 77 41 1 39
Colorado        
Harvested 68 39 51 28
Kansas        
Harvested 38 22 24 22
Texas        
Harvested NA 73 76 73
Crop Conditions - Monday, October 19, 2020
State Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent
North Dakota 33 13 32 48 4
Colorado 11 21 53 15 0
NSA receives specialty crop grants
The North Dakota Department of Agriculture has awarded the National Sunflower Association nearly $124,000 to enhance rust resistance in confection sunflower production through next-generation technologies. In addition, the department awarded NDSU more than $105,000 for managing Sclerotinia head rot in confection sunflowers with bee-vectored clonostachys rosea and partially resistant hybrids. The money is part of 27 grants to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS) approved, totaling over $3 million. The money is given to promote the development, cultivation, production and sales of specialty crops in North Dakota. 
Call for papers
Submissions to present at the annual NSA Research Forum must be completed by November 13, 2020. The Forum will be held via Zoom on January 13-14,2021. Click here to learn more. 
Markets
Nearby prices at the crush plants were mixed at down 10 to up 5 cents this week. 2021 new crop moved down 10 cents. About 40% of sunflowers were in the bin as of last week, up from 25% seven days earlier and well ahead of the prior five-year average of 22% for this time of year, the USDA said. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 234,000 acres pushing 2020 harvested acres to about 616,000 acres. Harvest progress remains about two weeks ahead of the five-year average and four weeks ahead of last year at this same time. However, several snow events this week in parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota could slow harvest for a few days. 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 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. Harvest progress, yield and crop quality will be key to prices going forward.
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