Commodity Marketing
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Six Steps to Good Marketing
First off, an update on why there have not been any posts for a few days. I went on a four day backpacking trip into the North Cascade Mountains of Washington state. This is some of the best scenery in the whole United States. I went with a friend that was in my wedding many […]
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The Five Year Forecast – Is It Better or Worse?
As the global economy turned south a year ago, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri decided to revise their projections of food prices and production over the next five years. This was done early in the year and many commodity prices have changed direction in the last several months. FAPRI […]
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Twelve Steps to Avoid Being a Marketing Lemming
I came across a good marketing company be watching Agday the other day. Alan Brugler was discussing the corn and bean market and I decided to go check out his web site. He is located in Omaha, Nebraska and has a very good short guide on how not to be a marketing lemming. I will […]
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My Last ACRE Post for the Year (I Promise!)
With less than two weeks to sign up for the ACRE program (the date is August 14, which is a Friday) and with most ag offices being understaffed, if you need to sign up for ACRE, I would suggest doing it now. I have read about several meetings where there might be a crowd of […]
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ACRE To Be or Not to Be
For many farmers, the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program is about as easy to understand as learning a new language for the first time. I have read several articles and listened to a couple of slide shows on the program. You have until mid-August to make up you mind regarding the election for […]
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Corn Coming out of our “Ears”
Many are calling the USDA Planted Acreage Report that came out this week “Bloody Tuesday” since the amount of corn acreage planted this year was much higher than what the trade was expecting. Even though there was a large amount of rain early in the Eastern Corn Belt, three of the Western Corn Belt states, […]
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Senate Report Finds Excessive Speculation in Wheat Markets
A Senate Subcommitee spent the past year investigating the impact of index funds on the wheat market. They concluded that all of this new money flooding into index funds distorted the market. The 247 page report released on June 24, 2009 summarized their findings as follows: 1. Excessive speculation in wheat. Index Traders increased future prices […]
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Be Careful of Organic Demand
For several years, farmers who grew organic crops were able to generate higher returns than non-organic farmers. However, with the current recession, those days may be coming to an end. Organic farmers are required to meet tough standards to have their crops and food products branded as organic. Generally, they are not able to use […]
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In-Kind Wages Can Be Better Than Cash
One of the great options open to farmers is to pay their employees in-kind wages. In-kind wages are the payments of the crops that a farmer grows. For example, a farmer could pay their employees either cash wages of $10,000 or 1,000 bushels of soybeans worth $10,000. The reason that a farmer would want to […]
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Don’t Wait Too Long
The Department of Agriculture released many crop reports today. As a result, corn, soybeans and wheat prices were sharply lower on the cash and futures markets. In many cases, the drop was 10% or more. Prices has steadily risen over the last few weeks and there were many chances to lock in a profit on […]