Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Oct 21 2019

Crop Progress

Harvest has been slow due to a major snowstorm that struck the Dakotas and Minnesota. Several days of warm, dry weather will be needed before harvest can begin in those areas. Meantime, more than half of Colorado's sunflower crop is reported harvested.

Crop Progress - Monday, October 21, 2019

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Mature	89	71	---	---
Harvested	6	17	28	27
South Dakota
Harvested	5	---	8	28
Kansas
Harvested	27	17	24	23
Colorado
Harvested	55	41	18	25
Texas
Harvested	NA	73	72	70

Crop Conditions - Monday, October 21, 2019

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	3	8	37	48	4
Colorado	0	1	18	76	5
Minnesota	1	4	27	61	7

Call for Papers

We are looking for research papers to be presented at the NSA Research Forum, set for January 8-9, 2020 in Fargo, ND. Presentations may be either oral or in the form of a poster. A time will be designated for authors to be with their posters and answer questions. Each oral presentation will be limited to 10-12 minutes with 2-3 minutes allowed for questions. Click here if you are interested in presenting a paper. 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 15, 2019.

Registration is now open for the 2020 NSA Research Forum, scheduled for January 8-9, 2020 at the Holiday Inn (3803 13^thAve. S, Fargo, ND). Click here to register for the forum at the early bird price of $130. You’ll find hotel information there as well. See you in Fargo!

Markets

New crop sunflower prices continue to roll at the crush plants. 2020 crop sunflower prices are out at the Cargill West Fargo crush plant with cash and Act of God (AOG) contracts available. NuSun is at $17.75 cash and $17.50 AOG. High oleic prices are $18.25 cash with $18.00 AOG. 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. Nearby NuSun prices at the crush plants ended the week up 5 to 10 cents, while high oleic was unchanged to up 10 cents this week. At the beginning of October, harvest was underway but overall progress has been slow due to a major snowstorm that struck the Dakotas and Minnesota. So far, producers have harvested only 120,000 acres mainly in Colorado, Kansas and Texas. This represents 10% of this year’s projected harvested acres and is significantly behind the five-year average. Several days of warm dry weather will be needed before harvest can begin in most areas. Harvest progress, yield and crop quality will be key to prices going forward.