I can still remember the day Dan asked me to compare discount schedules during harvest a few years back to see which grain buyer we should deliver to. I’d just started working for a large grain company, but I still had very little experience with discount schedules and still wasn’t comfortable reading them. So, you…
Category: Cash Grain Marketing
What is the WASDE Report?
Numbers. When people start talking numbers with little description, do you simply start tuning it out and then realize you didn’t hear a bit of what was said? No? Just me then… 😉 Crop reports contain a LOT of numbers and not a lot of explanation of how they relate to one another and how…
New Crop, Old Crop, Front Month Futures…What??
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the jargon in grain marketing? You walk into the local co-op, hear the coffee group talking about ‘new crop’ corn being down around $.04, and think to yourself…what does that mean? Every industry has jargon, but not every industry uses it outside the four walls of their company…
What is Grain Marketing?
“So you do marketing for grain! That’s great, where do you advertise and promote it?” It might surprise you how much I received this response when I would tell people I helped farmers market their grain. It makes sense though. When the term ‘marketing’ is used outside of the Ag industry, it is almost always…
Why you shouldn’t stress if you don’t understand options
When I ask people what they want to better understand about grain marketing, they often respond, “Options. I want to understand how to use options.” Let’s dig into that a bit more. Let’s say I’m new to accounting and I’m just starting to get comfortable filing tax returns for clients. At this point, I’ve filed…
Winter Resolutions…The Farm Version of New Year’s Resolutions
Now’s about the time when you take a hard look at your New Year’s Resolutions and determine which ones you’ve been following through on and which ones you abandoned weeks ago. I’ll be honest, I’m really terrible at writing down New Year’s Resolutions. I usually think of the areas I’d like to improve on during…
Rolling a Basis Contract: How does it work?
While we’re on a ‘roll’ with the subject of rolling contracts, 😉 let’s check out what happens if you roll a BASIS contract. In the case of a basis contract, you have basis set, but not futures. Thus, your cash price is not established. Understanding what happens when you roll a basis contract can be…
Bullish vs. Bearish – What do these terms mean?
What does it mean when a USDA report is BULLISH or BEARISH for a commodity? You hear it all the time in the industry, “The crop report is OUT! Everyone, it was a bullish report day for beans with yield at “insert yield here” and production at “insert reported production here.” Here’s the problem. If…
Buying an Engagement Ring vs. Pricing a Contract…
Imagine this, you’re a jeweler selling an engagement ring. Yes, I did just come up with this analogy after looking down at my engagement ring. Stay with me, it gets more creative. A fine young man walks into your store and says he needs to purchase a ring. He has one hesitation about buying it…
Rolling to Capture ‘Carry’? What does that Mean?
“Yeah, just roll that contract and capture the carry.” Have you ever heard a merchandiser say that and then wanted to respond, “Uh, come again?” Today, we’re going to clear up your questions so you don’t hesitate the next time you’re in this scenario! In this article, I’m going to explain what it means and…