DARN IT!

By Bing Von Bergen

On October 15 – 17, Jon Stoner, MGGA Past President, Lola Raska, Executive Vice President, and I traveled to northern and eastern Montana to listen to our members’ concerns during our annual listening sessions.  Many times during this trip Jon would lurch as if startled and yell DARN IT!  (or words to that effect)  It was funny watching his spasms until I realized that I also was having similar spasms and was also yelling DARN IT! At our listening sessions we witnessed other farmers with similar symptoms and it seemed that these moments occurred when someone mentioned the price of wheat or durum.  One favorite saying that I have memorized simply because I’ve heard it a hundred times, and I hate now more than ever, is “You didn’t lose that money, because you never had it.”  DARN IT!

If someone had offered me a contract to sell my wheat for $6.50 per bushel a year ago I would have shoved people to the ground to get to the contract signing first. In fact, a little over a month ago I was ecstatic about the price I received for my wheat. But now I’m wondering where I messed up in my marketing strategy.  DARN IT!  I remember one hunting trip where I shot a nice buck and was proud of it until driving back I saw a much bigger buck and wondered why I had wasted my tag on such a small one.  I have a Missouri Breaks either sex elk tag this year and a similar situation could arise but I will have to be content with the elk that I decide to pull the trigger on.  The same has to be said for selling my wheat, because when I pulled the trigger on the sell I was quite happy that it was the best wheat price that I have received in 28 years of farming.  But DARN IT!

There was nothing wrong with the strategy we had - starting to sell our wheat in increments once we started showing a profit.  The experts have been telling us for years to use that strategy and that is how you survive in agriculture. I did not read any expert who predicted this perfect storm in the rising price of wheat, so it must have caught them as flat footed as it did us.  I am reluctant now to forward contract 2008 wheat for fear that I will sell too soon again.  We can already contract for over $6.00 and if I don’t sell now and the price is down to $4.00 next harvest I will develop another spasm.

I feel much better about my wheat sales now that I got it off my chest.  It’s time to call my landlords and tell them, “You didn’t really lose that money because you never really had it.” 

Von Bergen is from Moccasin, Montana and current Vice President of the Montana Grain Growers Assn.  Reprinted from the MGGA newsletter.