Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Oct 09 2018

Crop Progress

Harvest is moving right along in reporting states. Kansas reports 12 percent of the sunflower crop there harvested. In South Dakota, 4 percent is reported harvested.

Crop Progress - Tuesday, October 9, 2018

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Mature	91	75	79	73
Harvested	9	6	4	5
South Dakota
Harvested	4	3	9	7
Minnesota
Harvested	16	13	5	18
Kansas
Harvested	12	6	4	7
Texas
Harvested	68	67	58	61

Crop Conditions - Tuesday, October 9, 2018

State	Very Poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
North Dakota	1	8	32	55	4
Minnesota	0	2	35	53	10
Colorado	0	2	27	67	4

Reduce the Risk of Combine Fires

Sunflower is an oil-based crop, and fine fibers from sunflower seeds pose a constant fire hazard, especially when conditions are dry. To help reduce the risk 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.

Markets

Nearby prices at the crush plants ended the week unchanged. After more than a year of intense negotiations, the United States, Canada and Mexico reached an agreement to update the North American Free Trade Agreement last week. The new deal will be known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Having a USMCA agreement in place is great news for sunflower products as oil, meal, in-shell seed and kernel have duty free access in Canada and Mexico. Canada is the largest export market for US sunflower oil and sunflower kernel. Mexico is the second largest export market for in-shell seed and kernel. The price discovery period has started for crop insurance policies for sunflower and will continue until October 31. Producers should watch the December CBoT soyoil contract as it will allow you to see how prices are tracking. The harvest price per pound for oil-type sunflowers is currently at 15.8 cents and confection sunflowers at 22.0 cents. The spring prices were 17.5 cents for oils and 23.7 cents for confections. On October 11, USDA will issue its first production estimate of the 2018 sunflower crop. This report will be key to prices going forward. The market and buyers are anxious to see where USDA pegs 2018 sunflower production prospects before making longer term purchases. Using a trend yield, initial estimates peg the US sunflower crop at around 875,000 MT, which compares to last year’s total of 984,000 MT.