Sunflowers see strong harvest deliveries

Continued strong harvest deliveries has led to some nearby price pressure at the crush plants and other delivery points. NuSun and high oleic prices at the crush plants ended the week down 5 to 20 cents. 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 also started to drift lower in some locations. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 230,000 acres pushing 2018 harvested acres to almost 608,000 acres. This represents 53 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 2,800-pound range with some reports over 3,500 pounds. The USDA Risk Management Agency is expected to announce Harvest Prices for revenue insurance policies for sunflowers soon. The harvest price per pound for oil-type sunflowers should be 15.5 cents and confection sunflowers at 21.7 cents. The spring prices were 17.5 cents for oils and 23.7 cents for confections. Given the drop between the spring and fall prices producers should contact their local crop insurance agent to see if they are eligible for an indemnity payment.