Sunflower markets see a downward trend

Increasing harvest deliveries has led to some nearby price pressure at the crush plants. NuSun prices at the crush plants ended the week down 10 to 50 cents, while high oleics were down 15 to 50 cents this week. With the current downtrend in nearby prices storing seed for delivery after the first of the year might be something to consider if you have available storage. Premiums of 45 to 65 cents per hundredweight, depending on the month, are being offered at the North Dakota crush plants for later delivery. Birdfood prices continue to see little movement. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 151,000 acres pushing 2018 harvested acres to almost 379,000 acres. This represents 33 percent of this year’s projected harvested acres and is behind the five-year average. Seed quality remains generally very good. Yields are being reported in the 1,500 to 2,700-pound range with some reports over 3,500 pounds. The price discovery period is in progress for crop insurance policies for sunflower and will continue until Oct. 31. Producers should watch the December Chicago Board of Trade soyoil contract as it will allow you to see how prices are tracking. The harvest price per pound for oil-type sunflowers is currently at 15.6 cents and confection sunflowers at 21.80 cents. This is down .1 cent per pound from last week. The spring prices were 17.5 cents for oils and 23.7 cents for confections.