Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Feb 22 2022

USDA to survey farmers’ planting intentions for 2022

As the 2022 crop production season begins, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will contact producers nationwide to determine their plans for the upcoming growing season. NASS will mail the survey questionnaire in February, asking producers to provide information about the types of crops they intend to plant in 2022, how many acres they intend the plant and the amounts of grain and oilseed stored on their farms. NASS encourages producers to respond online or by mail. Those producers who do not respond by the deadline may be contacted for a telephone or personal interview. Survey results will be published in the Prospective Plantings and quarterly Grain Stocks report to be released on March 31, 2022. These and all NASS reports are available online; visit www.nass.usda.gov/Publications to see the reports.

Upcoming North Dakota County Elections

Growers are invited to attend elections in their county for the sunflower representatives to the North Dakota Oilseed Council. Elections are being held in several areas in February. Here’s a list by county:

Dunn County: February 23, 5:00 p.m. Pipe Bar & Grill, Killdeer
Mountrail County: February 23, 5:00 p.m., Mountrail County South Complex, Stanley
Bowman and Slope Counties, February 28, 3:00 p.m., Community Center, Amidon

District elections will be held in March. For more information, visit www.oilseedcouncil.nd.gov

Resources available for producers on NSA website

As you plan for spring planting, there is helpful information on our website for producers. Visit www.sunflowernsa.com/growers to go to the growers section on our website; check out the Sunflower Production Resource Book for your area. The books provide guidelines and recommendations on production practices, pest identification, field selection and more.

Markets

Old crop NuSun and high oleic prices were unchanged last week. New crop prices were unchanged to up 40 cents. The crop insurance price discovery process continues for 2022 crop insurance price elections. Oil type sunflowers are at $32.10, and confections are $40.10 per cwt., This is an increase of 20 cents for oils and confections from last week. Last year at this same time, oil type sunflowers were at $21.60, and confections were $26.80 per cwt. To follow sunflower price election trends, watch the 2022 CBoT December soyoil contract through February 28. Final price elections will be announced in early March. CBoT prices were mixed last week but mostly higher as traders continue to assess the state of Russia/Ukraine tensions and South American weather forecasts, which have consistently been the two biggest price drivers. Amid ongoing economic uncertainties surrounding geopolitical tensions in the Black Sea region and shrinking soy supplies in South America, top global edible oil importers such as India have been in the market looking for stable sources of oil to fulfil demand. Global soyoil supplies are expected to drop to the sixth tightest volume on record. Shrinking palm oil production and Ukrainian uncertainties in the sunflower oil market have created an intense supply squeeze in the world’s top three edible oils markets. The current situation bodes well for old crop prices in the near to medium term as market participants compete for available supplies.

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