Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Sep 25 2017

Crop Progress

Minnesota's sunflower crop is rated 85 percent good to excellent. Meanwhile, the sunflowers in Kansas are right on schedule; petals are dry on 76 percent of the crop, on track with last year's 75 percent and 78 percent average.

Crop Progress - Monday, September 25, 2017

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Petals Dry	95	93	94	----
Bracts Yellow	84	77	82	74
Mature	48	32	50	----
South Dakota
Petals Dry	87	71	77	88
Bracts Yellow	59	35	48	66
Mature	25	10	----	----
Kansas
Petals Dry	76	63	75	76
Bracts Yellow	59	38	52	53
Mature	32	16	21	----
Texas
Harvested	NA	47	50	52

Crop Conditions - Monday, September 25, 2017

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	9	13	39	37	2
South Dakota	6	21	48	22	3
Minnesota	0	1	14	63	22
Colorado	1	4	19	62	14
Kansas	1	4	26	57	12

Research Grant Applications Being Accepted

Research is an important part of the NSA’s mission – each year, the NSA provides grants to public researchers to stimulate new or additional work that may result in lower production costs, increased quality, and higher yields. Pre-proposals for projects to be considered for funding in 2018 are now being accepted. Click here to read more and submit pre-proposals.

Market

Sunflower harvest should be starting soon as many acres are maturing quickly and could be desiccated to begin harvest. Desiccating the crop for early harvest is a great way to stay ahead of potential bird damage. CBoT soy oil contracts ended the week weaker on price pressure from a potential build in world vegetable oil stocks in 2017/18. This resulted in sunflower prices at the crush plants ended the week down 10 to 35 cents. Based on the latest figures from the USDA Farm Service Agency crop acreage report, area planted to sunflower in 2017 decreased 16 percent from 2016 and totals 1.33 million acres. Planted area of oil type varieties, at 1.17 million acres, is down 17 percent from 2016. Planted acreage of non-oil varieties, estimated at 156,000 acres, is down 12 percent from last year. Using a trend yield would peg the US sunflower crop at around 800,000 MT, which compares to last year’s total of 1.2 million metric tons (MMT). If realized this level of production will create very tight ending stocks at the end of the 2017/18 marketing year. The biggest unknown is the drought impact on production in the Dakotas, the largest sunflower producers. A significant drop off in yield will impact the market. USDA will release its final acreage and production estimates in January.