Sunflower Highlights
Post Date: Oct 15 2024
Crop Progress - Tuesday, October 15, 2024
State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average
North Dakota        
Bracts Yellow 98 92 96 97
Mature 81 70 84 85
Harvested 10 3 6 15
South Dakota        
Bracts Yellow 95 79 99 --
Mature 82 57 76 --
Harvested 15 3 8 14
Minnesota        
Harvested 24 5 31 27
Texas        
Harvested NA 90 87 77
Kansas        
Harvested 40 32 52 30
Colorado        
Harvested 30 11 29 31
Crop Conditions - Tuesday, October 15, 2024
State Timeframe Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent
North Dakota This week 1 2 35 59 3
  Last week 2 4 31 61 2
Minnesota This week 0 1 23 65 11
  Last week 0 1 27 64 9
Colorado This week 21 26 37 15 1
  Last week 29 21 31 18 1
South Dakota This week 5 6 30 54 5
  Last week 7 7 32 55 0
Grower Report
Onida, South Dakota grower Chuck Todd says no one in his area has started harvesting sunflower. Temperatures have been in the 90’s and lots of wind. They have not received any moisture in the last month to month and a half. Red seed weevil was an issue as always, along with dry spots and kochia. He is currently harvesting beans and then corn. He thinks it will be a week or more until he starts harvesting sunflowers.
Markets
Nearby and new crop prices at the crush plants were unchanged to up 50 cents this week. About 16% of sunflowers were in the bin as of last week, up from 6% seven days earlier and equal to the five-year average for this time of year. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 64,800 acres pushing 2024 harvested acres to about 105,000 acres. Harvest progress remains slightly ahead of last year at this same time. Last week USDA pegged 2024 sunflower production at 1.3 billion pounds, down 42 percent from the revised 2023 production of 2.26 billion pounds. USDA cut 3.64 million pounds from 2023 oil sunflower production and 2.19 million pounds from non-oil type production from last year. Acreage updates were made in several states. Area planted, at 720,000 acres, is down 20 percent from the June estimate and down 45 percent from last year. Sunflower growers expect to harvest 691,000 acres, down 20 percent from the June forecast and down 45 percent from 2023. The overall average yield for all sunflower types is forecast at 1,889 pounds per acre. This is 102 pounds higher than last year’s average yield and will represent the highest on record for the US if realized.  The forecasted production in North Dakota would make it the leading sunflower producing state this year at 591 million pounds, a decrease of 47 percent from 2023. The next estimates will be released in early January.
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