As expected, sunflower prices have fallen from the pre-harvest peak. However,
harvest prices remain historically high despite harvest progress approaching
over 50 percent nationally. Prices at the crush plants are $7.00 cwt higher now
than any previous October. This is largely due to the reduced crop size and
strong competition from the bird food and hulling markets. In areas of heavy
prevent plant, farmers have excess-to- unused storage and are likely to let the
market come to them over the next nine months by storing more of the sunflower
crop. On the international scene, the Black Sea region is aggressively crushing
the large sunflower crop. Argentine sunflower plantings may not increase much
due to strong corn prices. U.S. soybean exports have been slow putting a lid on
soybean prices for now. The oil portion of the value of a bushel of soybeans
remains strong.