Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Apr 08 2024

2023 Sunflower Crop Quality Report available online

The 2023 U.S. Sunflower Crop Quality Report is now available on the NSA website. To view the report, follow this link to our website: www.sunflowernsa.com/stats/us-crop-quality/. The U.S. Sunflower Crop Quality Report is produced annually by the National Sunflower Association. The report contains useful information about sunflower acreage and production, confection and oil-type seed quality, mid-oleic and high oleic oil quality analysis and oil traits, product specifications, oil trading rules, statistics on marketing the crop, world and U.S. supply and demand tables, sunflower oil and meal exports for the United States and other related topics of interest to those in the industry.

Sunflower Production Conference Video Link Available

If you missed the ‘2024 Getting-it-Right in Sunflower Production,’ video conference you can access it on-line. Topics covered ranged from sunflower agronomy, hybrid data, soil considerations and plant nutrition, updates for weed, disease and insect management, and a market update. The program was conducted by North Dakota State University Extension. Recording and resources are available at https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/getting-it-right, scroll to the conference video section and click the sunflower meeting link. Each individual talk has its own video clip. Additional publications and resources are available under the sunflower conference resources.

Markets

Nearby prices were down 75 cents to unchanged and new crop prices were unchanged this week at the crush plants. Traders are still chattering about USDA’s March 28 report which had producers planting much lower oil-type sunflower acres than last year. USDA pegged a 31% decrease in planted acres from 2023. The estimate for oil type varieties was within industry expectations. Oilseed crushers and bird food buyers were expecting an acre decrease given large carryover seed stocks. Market analysts expect the acreage discussion to continue into the foreseeable future as the battle for acres continues. The March report gave farmers a look at what others are thinking of planting this year. There is still time to adjust plans to take advantage of the market opportunities that sunflowers can offer. Something to consider is how well sunflowers performed last year. Confections had a record high yield while oil-types had the second highest yield on record for the U.S. Crush plants and confection processors 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. With crop insurance prices of $23.80 for oils and $28.80 for confections and much lower acres, diversifying market risk with some sunflower acres would be a good option in 2024.

Work safely around grain

People who work with grain—loading it, unloading it, and moving it from bin to bin—need to know about the hazards of flowing grain and how to prevent a grain entrapment situation. People can become trapped in grain in three different ways: the collapse of bridged grain, the collapse of a vertical wall of grain and entrapment in flowing grain. Moving or flowing grain is involved in all three. Here are some general safety precautions:

Don’t let children work or play in an area where there is flowing grain.
All workers involved in a situation where there is flowing grain should be warned to stay out of the grain.
Warning decals should be placed at all bin entrances, on all rail cars, truck and trailer boxes used for grain hauling and on all gravity discharge wagons.
Never enter a grain bin without stopping the auger first and using “lock-out/tag-out” procedures to secure it.
Never enter a grain bin alone; have at least two people at the bin to assist in case problems arise. Use a safety harness or safety line when entering the bin.
Install a permanent lifeline hanging from the center of the bin for a person to grab on to.
Control the access to grain storage facilities to prevent grain entrapments.

For more information, check out the NDSU publication “Caught in the Grain.” It’s available here: www.ag.ndsu.edu/publications/crops/caught-in-the-grain

Upcoming Events

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

Markets at a Glance

Weekly Prices Recorded on Monday, April 8, 2024 ($/CWT)

	Deliver	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change	2024 NEW Crop
Chicago Oil	Nearby	54.48	48.24	47.90	-.34	48.56
West Fargo, ND	NuSun	21.50	NQ	NQ	NC	NQ
West Fargo, ND	High Oleic	22.00	14.50	13.75	-.75	19.25
Enderlin, ND	NuSun	21.50	13.50	13.50	NC	NQ
Enderlin, ND	High Oleic	22.00	14.00	14.00	NC	19.00
Lamar, CO	High Oleic	23.25	15.70	15.70	NC	20.00

U.S. CRUDE OIL VALUES recorded on Monday, April 8, 2024
(dollars per 100 lb. internal U.S. locations)

	Last Year	Last Week	This Week	Change
Soybean Oil	59.48	51.24	50.90	-.34
Cotton Oil (pbsy)	99.48	73.24	72.90	-.34
Corn Oil	84.00	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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