Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Nov 30 2020

Crop progress

Harvest is complete in Texas and Colorado, and nearly finished in the Dakotas and Kansas.

Crop Progress - Monday, November 30, 2020

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Harvested	98	95	48	85
South Dakota
Harvested	96	89	68	88
Colorado
Harvested	100	100	98	96
Kansas
Harvested	98	95	96	93
Texas
Harvested	100	95	94	91

Seed Quality

High Plains	2020	2019
Oil Content	39.4%	39.7%
Foreign Material	6.6%	6.8%
Moisture	7.3%	6.8%
Test Weight	28.7 lbs	28.4 lbs
Northern Plains	2020	2019
Oil Content	43.5%	42.6%
Foreign Material	4.4%	6.1%
Moisture	8.9%	11.7%
Test Weight	29.5 lbs	31.5 lbs

NSA Board of Directors to meet this week

The National Sunflower Association’s Board of Directors will meet virtually on December 3-4. Agenda items include discussions on blackbird damage management, crop insurance, grower and industry reports, the association’s budget, as well as product and grower promotion. Officers will also be elected.

Registration is now open for the 2021 NSA Research Forum. The forum will be held via Zoom on January 13-14, 2021. Registration will be $25. To register, click here. Closer to the event, you’ll receive a link to attend the forum virtually.

Markets

The CBoT rally cooled off last week as traders grew concerned Chinese demand is waning as soybean prices climbed to a four year high. Rising soybean prices on the CBoT are leading smaller Chinese soybean importers and processors to cancel export sales previously booked for December and January. The recent runup in futures prices has sent crush margins into negative territory, prompting processors in China to seek options to back out of export deals. Nearby NuSun and high oleic prices at the crush plants held on to recent gains and added another 10 to 20 cents. Overall, NuSun and high oleic prices continue to trade 90 cents to $1.05 per cwt. higher than the 60 day moving average at the crush plants. 2021 new crop was unchanged to up 20 cents last week. Sunflower harvest is inching closer to the finish line for this season. Very favorable weather conditions in the past week allowed sunflower producers to make good harvest progress. Harvest progress advanced 4% to 97% complete for the week ending November 29. Harvest progress remains 10% ahead of the five-year average. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 66,000 acres pushing 2020 harvested acres to about 1,493,000 acres. Crop quality remains very good and yields have been above average in most cases. Harvest progress remains about one week to ten days ahead of the five year average. Last year at this same time only 62% of the crop was in the bin.