By John Berry
Grain Marketing Learning Opportunities-Grain marketing discussion groups are a great way to casually explore and review our personal marketing needs compared to the pricing tools available to us.
The many ways to think about marketing grains can be overwhelming. Extension’s grain marketing discussion groups are a great way to casually explore and review our personal marketing needs compared to the pricing tools available to us.
Penn State Extension is once again facilitating several grain marketing discussion groups across the state throughout the winter months. Grain Marketing Discussion Groups run from January - March beginning with dinner. These groups are pre-paid so there is no registration cost, but participants will need to buy their own dinner. Folks are also welcome to participate without having dinner. These educational events are available through Penn State Extension and USDA, Risk Management Agency support. All are invited and welcome.
In our January and February discussion groups we went over in a little detail some projections on the total corn and soybean supply and demand situation through the end of the 2016 marketing season. We also spent a fair amount of time working through 2016 budgets for corn and soybean production. In a few of these groups we passed around a piece of paper and asked everybody to write down how much of their 2015 and 2016 crops have been priced. Although there were some participants with no 2015 prices yet, the majority had 50-80% of their 2015 production either gone or priced for future delivery. To my surprise there were very few farmers with any of their expected 2016 corn or soybeans priced yet. This is usually a smallish number of bushels this far from a future harvest, but the almost complete lack of marketing did catch me by surprise.
Everybody has a marketing plan. The decision is really about “when do I stop speculating?” There are two dice every grain producer rolls each year; 1) yield, and 2) price. We generally spend most of our time and skill on yield maximization. These Grain Marketing Discussion Group events are an opportunity to enhance our understanding of, and skill with, grain marketing. The primary focus of our time together will be “Do you have adequate price protection in place at this time?”
If you have not participated in these casual educational events, this may be a great time to see what we’re up to. Everyone is invited and welcome to attend. Check our website for the March schedule and additional details. There is no registration. Just show up. Contact John Berry at 610-391-9840, 610-554-2561 or johnberry@psu.edu with any questions.
Source:psu.edu