Don’t Call Me an Expert - This is just the way I do things.

A Female Perspective on Marketing Grain and Being Actively Involved in the Farm Operation

Jeff and I farm about 1,100 acres of soybeans, wheat, sunflowers, alfalfa and corn, near Ada, Minn.  We also run a 50 head commercial beef cow/calf operation.  We have two kids, Tate, 12 and Katie, 9.  Jeff has been farming for nearly 20 years.  I grew up in a small town nearby and my dad had a plumbing business, so I did not grow up with a farm background.

I have three main roles on our farm. I coordinate the cows that are to be artificially inseminated (I suppose we do about half A.I. and we have a bull for the other half). I help operate equipment during the peak harvest times (I drive one of the combines at wheat harvest and I do all the baling. I don’t ‘love’ running the machinery, but I don’t mind it either). My main role on the farm is in the office, keeping the financial records and keeping tabs on what’s going on in the markets. 

Financially, we use Quicken as an accounting program, and it has served us well. In the past few years I have begun to use several different spread sheets that I’ve picked up in classes or in magazines. Farm Futures magazine has a spread sheet every month that I generally take a look at. Paging through the farm magazines we get is just as useful for me as it is for Jeff, since I can get ideas too for what I do on the farm. For instance, a return on assets article might ‘inspire’ me to analyze things pertaining to our situation more closely.  I’m no computer person but I’ve even learned how to create some of my own spread sheets to use for our own particular financials.  They’re useful in that you don’t have to refigure everything, you just plug in your numbers and the spread sheet recalculates things for you.

As far as marketing goes, I really was at ground zero six or seven years ago – I would not have been able to tell you what a futures contract was. What got me started with the marketing? Well, the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers had a campaign a number of years ago to organize marketing clubs, and brought in Sue Martin as a speaker as part of it. I started with the Ada marketing group and went on from there.

I can’t say enough how valuable participating in the marketing group has been for me. Our group is fortunate to have Mike Lockhart coordinating it.  I really appreciate his farm sense of things.  He’s a farmer and a farm business management educator, so he helps us analyze the financials every year.  I think it’s worthwhile to have a second pair of eyes on the books to see what/where/how improvements can be made.

I now market the soybeans, wheat and corn on our farm (primarily because those are the three discussed most in my marketing group), and Jeff handles all the sunflowers, alfalfa, straw and cattle sales.

You don’t see too many cows in the Red River Valley anymore, but the hay and the cattle have been good for us. We work with a hay buyer out of the Twin Cities who buys square bales that we grow for the horse market in that area. It’s been a great crop and a great arrangement for us. The hay buyer takes care of the transportation and once the hay is off the farm we don’t have to worry about it anymore, spoilage or rejected hay, for example .  The cattle come into play for the hay that’s not quite good enough for the horse market.  All in all, the hay and the cattle have meant good diversified sales for our farm.

I use marketing plans by Ed Usset* as an outline for my own marketing plan (but I use that term ‘marketing plan’ loosely!)  As a rule I prefer to make more sales involving fewer bushels than fewer sales of more bushels. The way I look at it, it’s easier to pull the trigger on sales of one or two thousand bushels than bigger bushel sales, and hopefully I’ll end up with a better sales average.

As a rule I try to sell about a third in the spring on futures fixed contracts with the local elevator. I like these for our farm because they allow me to designate the amount of bushels I want to sell, rather than having to sell a whole contract (5,000 bushels).  This works well, beings we aren’t a large farm. 

I also use basis fixed contracts a lot.  As a rule it seems like when futures are high, basis isn’t and vise versa, so these have worked well for me in the past.  Then we try to get another third sold during the summer sometime (once the crop is in the ground).  I have to admit, sometimes we only get to 50% sold by mid-summer, but the goal is two-thirds sold.   And finally the last after harvest.  Lately, I have tried selling the carry on the majority of our remaining corn and it’s worked pretty nicely.  I use options once in a while and have done some futures contracts.

Marketing grain is tough enough the way it is, and I couldn’t do it if Jeff second guessed my every decision. I normally run things by him before I arrange a sale or call and make a final order. He is supportive and gracious whether a sale I make works out well or not so well.

There have been times when I’ve pulled an order when I shouldn’t have, thinking the price will go higher and it doesn’t.  I try not to dwell on things. Whether you’re a male or female or new or experienced at marketing, no one knows exactly what the market is going to do, so just try to do the best you can.

What advice would I have for other interested women marketers? For sure, join a marketing group, or work with someone in your area to get one started, and try to meet regularly (our group meets every other week). Everybody brings insight and you really learn from one another.  I might not be up to speed on the basis or LDPs, but somebody else will. The more eyes and ears involved with marketing the better.  The “intelligence information” definitely makes for better marketing decisions.

I am the only female in my marketing group, but the other members have always been encouraging and respectful.  I serve on the MAWG board of directors and I’ve had the same experience there, encouraging and respectful.  I think that both in the marketing group and on the MAWG board, the guys appreciate having a female perspective.

Initially these marketing groups were my first contact with MAWG, but then a few years back I began to go to the resolutions meetings, and Jeff and I began attending the annual convention in December. Ultimately that led me to fill a vacancy on the board of directors last year by appointment and run for the board this year.

As I have been putting my thoughts together for this article, it made me realize how much MAWG has been a key player in helping me to be useful to this farm.  I have gone to so many educational programs that MAWG has organized, and I see the benefits daily from these outreach programs.  This leads me to mention the upcoming Annie’s Project.  This one, I am particularly excited about because it’s for women. Not only that, but it promises to be a very thorough curriculum. When I initially read information about Annie’s Project I thought, “This is what I need.”  So, I hope that other farm women find this something worth investing their time in. I really think it will be an excellent opportunity for women, who like me, want to sharpen their skills in being better business partners.

* Ed Usset is grain marketing specialist for the University of Minnesota Center for Farm Financial Management.  His marketing plans for corn, wheat and soybeans can be found online at www.cffm.umn.edu/publications/mktplans.aspx.