Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Apr 22 2024

NSA Website Provides Helpful Information for Producers

Have questions about growing sunflowers? You’ll find the answers to your questions on our website! Visit www.sunflowernsa.com and click on the “Growers” section – you will find answers to frequently asked questions there as well as links to more information about many important topics, including approved chemicals, production, marketing, crop insurance, and more.

Reducing Blackbird Damage

As producers gear up for planting, now is a good time to think about blackbirds and reducing the damage they could cause to this year’s sunflower crop. USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services recommends not planting sunflower in close proximity to large cattail sloughs (blackbird roosts) if at all possible. If you do plant close to cattails, consider spraying cattails with glyphosate in accordance with the label, or mowing cattails if possible. Something else to consider is developing roads or trails in larger fields (quarter or more) to allow access to the middle of fields. Birds always go to the center of the field where you can’t reach them. Trails or roads allow you many more locations and better accessibility to move blackbirds out of the field and reduce losses. You can find more tips to reduce blackbird damage on our website: www.sunflowernsa.com/growers/black-birds/. Another good strategy to reducing blackbird damage is to plant as early as possible and desiccate the crop. In many cases, producers have been about to get the crop all harvested before the birds even move in. The earliest plant date for Minnesota is April 21. In North Dakota, it is May 6 for most counties north of Highway 200 and May 11 for the remaining counties, based on the USDA RMA early planting dates.

Markets

Nearby prices were unchanged to up 30 cents with new crop unchanged this week at the crush plants. There is still time for producers to adjust their plans for this growing season to take advantage of the market opportunities that sunflowers can offer. The USDA planting intentions report showed planting of sunflower acres 31% below last year. The lower acreage offers the opportunity to diversify market risk with some sunflower acres in 2024. If you are concerned about the weather impacting yields, plants are still offering Act of God (AOG) contracts for fall delivery. These ‘fail safe’ contracts have become very popular with farmers throughout the production region. It provides an opportunity to ‘lock in’ attractive prices now for fall delivery and removes that all important factor of ‘yield risk’ when uncertain growing conditions exist. 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. The $19.00-$19.25 base contract increases to around $21.00 when adding in the oil premium. In the week ahead traders will be keeping tabs on the Middle East region after Israel’s rocket attack on Iran, U.S. planting progress and harvest progress in South America.

Sunflower Oil Exports Have Slight Decrease

U.S. sunflower oil exports in the first five months of the marketing year stand at 11,045 metric tons (MT) a slight decrease of 1,407 MT from the same time a year ago. Canada has increased imports and remains the top importer of U.S. sunflower oil. From October 2023 to February 2024, Canada imported 8,103 MT of sunflower oil, compared to 7,896 MT from October 2022 to February 2023 representing a 3% increase for the same time period. Decreased sales to Mexico and South Korea are the leading factors to the drop in exports. The two countries have imported 1,695 MT of sunflower oil so far this marketing year, which is down from 2,871 MT from the same time frame a year ago.

Registration is now open for our 2024 NSA Summer Seminar, scheduled for June 25-27, 2024. This year’s Summer Seminar will be held in Duluth, Minnesota. You can register on our website – go to 2024 NSA Summer Seminar (sunflowernsa.com) You’ll find our tentative schedule too, as well as hotel information and more. Pre-registration will begin at $375 and golf at $130, so register early for the best price. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Radisson Duluth Harborview. To reserve your room, call 218-481-1185 Ext. 2 using the group code G9653258. The rate is $151.00 per night plus taxes. The block of rooms will expire on May 24, 2024. The program is being finalized and more information will be coming soon. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt at tinam@sunflowernsa.com with questions.

Upcoming Events

June 25-27, 2024 - NSA Summer Seminar; Duluth, MN

Markets at a Glance

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, April 22, 2024 ($/CWT)

	Deliver	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change	2024 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil	Nearby	52.56	45.47	45.04	-.43	46.05
West Fargo, ND	NuSun	21.50	NQ	NQ	NC	NQ
West Fargo, ND	High Oleic	22.00	13.75	13.75	NC	19.25
Enderlin, ND	NuSun	21.50	13.70	13.70	NC	NQ
Enderlin, ND	High Oleic	22.00	14.20	14.20	NC	19.00
Lamar, CO	High Oleic	23.25	15.70	16.00	+.30	20.00

U.S. CRUDE OIL VALUES recorded on Monday, April 22, 2024
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. locations)

	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change
Soybean Oil	57.06	48.47	48.04	-.43
Cotton Oil (pbsy)	97.56	70.47	70.04	-.43
Corn Oil	75.00	59.00	59.00	NC

Prices recorded here are believed to be reliable at the time of posting. Individual companies have the right to correct any errors that may occur. Contact these facilities for complete market details.

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