Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: May 31 2022

Crop Progress - Tuesday, May 31, 2022

State	This Week	Last Week	Last Year	5 Year Average
North Dakota
Planted	22	3	52	44
Emerged	NA	NA	11	11
South Dakota
Planted	23	6	33	23
Kansas
Planted	12	10	25	19
Minnesota
Planted	7	0	89	77
Colorado
Planted	12	5	17	15
Texas
Planted	49	35	39	44

Plenty of Time to Plant Sunflowers

As the optimal planting window is closing on some crops, there is still time to take advantage of the market opportunities that sunflowers can offer. Seed supplies are still plentiful and there is still time to place an order to put in some acres this growing season. Sunflowers can be planted until late June in the Dakotas. The final planting dates for crop insurance purposes for sunflower vary by state and county. In North Dakota it is either June 10 or 15; South Dakota is June 15 or 20 and all of Minnesota is June 10. After these dates, the coverage is reduced by only 1 percent per day. The actual final date that sunflowers can be planted is anywhere from 20 to 25 days after this date depending on the county. To find the final planting date by county use this link: Crop Insurance (sunflowernsa.com)

Processors are still offering cash and Act of God (AOG) production contracts at record high prices. With very profitable returns, diversifying market risk with some confection or oil sunflower acres is a good option in 2022. To talk to crushers and processors about contracting opportunities use this link: Buyers and Sellers (sunflowernsa.com)

Markets

An excess of moisture in the ground continued to delay fieldwork in many locations. Sunflower planting has started but is behind last year and the five-year average pace in most states. Old and new crop prices held steady last week. Sunflower prices remain at record highs and the market is giving the signal to producers to plant sunflower this year. New crop prices are trading at $33.95-$35.10 cash with AOG at $33.40-$34.45. There’s also very good potential for sunflower prices to remain strong this fall because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The Russia/Ukraine conflict continues to be top of mind for the global sunflower market. Ukraine is the world's largest sunflower seed producer and sunflower oil exporter, but its invasion by Russia in February and the heavy fighting since have clouded the outlook for planting and exports. Ukrainian agriculture consultancy APK-Inform revised down its forecast for Ukraine's 2022 sunflower harvest to 9.2 million metric tons (MMT). Ukraine harvested 16.6 MMT of sunflower seeds last year. APK-Inform has said the 2022 sowing area for sunflowers may fall its lowest in 13 years, to about 4.2 million hectares, down 38% versus 2021 levels. For 2022/23, global sunflower seed production is going to be a moving target depending on what actually gets planted in Ukraine this year. The war in Ukraine has left much uncertainty of what seed availability will be like this year and potentially in 2023 as well.

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