How Will You Market Grain in 2019

 

Marketing simulation at extension workshops in Cambria and Bradford Counties helps farmers make the best possible decisions for selling their grain.

 

Farmers experienced tight grain markets in 2018, making it especially important to ensure that they’re getting the best possible prices in 2019. To help sellers put together a winning grain-marketing game plan, Penn State Extension is offering a workshop designed to enhance one’s grain-marketing confidence and skills. The courses, to be held in Towanda and Ebensburg on February 7th and 8th, respectively, offers practical, easy-to-execute advice to help farmers secure a good average price for their crop.

 

“Over the course of their career, a farmer may have only 30 crops to sell,” says John Berry, Penn State Extension. “That doesn’t leave much room for learning-curve errors. We designed these courses to give farmers a chance to practice their marketing skills in a no-risk environment.”

 

In these lively workshops, developed by the University of Minnesota Center for Farm Financial Management, participants get a greater understanding of seasonal grain prices and how crop insurance can be a part of their grain-marketing strategies and will begin to develop a grain-marketing plan for their farm. As part of the workshops, attendees simulate a year of grain-marketing decisions, choosing whether to purchase crop insurance and forward contract their grain. They see the results of their decisions, not just for one year, but also against 15 years of actual market prices.

 

“Farmers go to great lengths developing production plans for their crops, but we tend to plan less on how to get a good price for the resulting grain,” Berry notes. “In this workshop, we give farmers an opportunity to develop a marketing plan and practice its implementation, using actual daily market prices.”