Nearby prices at the crush plants were down 30 to unchanged this week. Rain and snow events last week in parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota tamped the brakes on harvest progress for a few days.
Sunflower harvest progress did pick up ahead of the storm arriving and advanced 12% to 42% complete for the week ending Oct. 29. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 143,210 acres pushing 2023 harvested acres to about 505,700 acres. Harvest progress is 2% behind the five-year average and 14% behind last year at this same time. Harvest progress is expected to be slow this week as it may take a while for fields to dry out in the Dakotas and Minnesota from the past week’s heavy rain and snow to allow equipment back into the fields to continue harvesting.
This week the USDA Risk Management Agency is expected to announce Harvest Prices for 2023 revenue insurance policies for sunflowers. The harvest price has fallen to where a yield loss or a combination of yield and price could lead to a crop insurance payment this year for some producers. The expected harvest price per pound for oil-type sunflowers should be around 28 cents with confection sunflowers at 30 cents. Spring prices were 30.5 cents for oils and 32.6 cents for confections. It is best to check with your crop insurance agent to see if you are entitled to an indemnity check on this year’s sunflower crop.
