Sunflower Highlights
Post Date: Sep 28 2026
Crop Progress - Monday, September 28, 2026
State This Week Last Week Last Year 5 Year Average
North Dakota        
Petals Dry 94 91 89 94
Bracts Yellow 84 73 72 81
Mature 53 33 38 46
South Dakota        
Harvested 0 0 0 1
Minnesota        
Harvested 0 0 0 2
Texas        
Harvested 76 75 80 77
Kansas        
Harvested 8 6 5 7
Colorado        
Harvested 0 0 2 1
Crop Conditions - Monday, September 28, 2026
State Timeframe Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent
North Dakota This week 2 12 46 39 1
Last week 2 13 45 38 2
Minnesota This week 0 1 27 64 8
Last week 0 1 27 64 8
Colorado This week 0 7 13 80 0
Last week 5 0 23 72 0
Call for Papers

We are looking for research papers to be presented at the NSA Research Forum, set for January 13-14, 2027, in Fargo, ND. Presentations may be either oral or in the form of a poster. A time will be designated for authors to be with their posters and answer questions. Each oral presentation will be limited to 15-17 minutes with 2-3 minutes allowed for questions. Visit 2027 Call for Papers if you are interested in presenting a paper. You do not have to submit the actual paper or poster at this time, just the information indicated online and the author information. Submissions must be completed by December 8, 2026.

Markets

At the crush plants the nearby contracts were unchanged to up 25 cents this week. Sunflower harvest has started in North Dakota and Kansas. In Texas, harvest continues to move along close to the five-year average. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 18,800 acres pushing 2026 harvested acres to about 47,000 acres. This represents 4% of this year’s projected harvested acres and is slightly ahead of last year at this same time. Traders are eagerly awaiting to see USDA’s first estimate of 2026 US harvested sunflower acres and total seed production that will be released next week. This week USDA will release its latest grain stocks report. Traders are expecting sunflower seed stocks to be up from a year ago but within the five-year average after last year’s larger crop. This report along with actual harvest reports will set the tone for nearby sunflower price direction in the near term. After recent wet and soggy weather, drier and warmer conditions are forecast in the Northern Plains for the rest of this week and much of next week as well. Conditions will be good for maturing sunflower.

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