Issue 31
Marketing Guide 2000
 

Prairie Grains is the official publication of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, South Dakota Wheat, Inc. and the Minnesota Barley Growers Association.

Copyright
Prairie Grains Marketing Guide 2000

Association Perspectives

To stay independent, become interdependent

Sometimes as producers, we find ourselves daydreaming about how much easier it would be if we didn't have to deal with marketing and risk management.  If we could just collect a decent hourly wage or monthly salary with benefits, and just go out and farm.

But the reality is that we are individual business owners (and darned proud of it). As farmers, we face risks that many other individual non-farm business owners don't have—weather, politics, and the markets among them. At the same rate, we as farmers also have programs that others do not—such as a third year of federal farm support assistance. There's also many resources out there to help producers manage their risks—including we, your producer associations to help manage political and regulatory risks, and help provide risk management education opportunities, such as this publication.

The 2000-2001 Prairie Grains Marketing Guide references resources to assist producers with marketing and risk management. Use them if and when you need them. Ironically, to be successful individual business owners, we must network, learn from, and work with each other. As Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson often says, producers need to work with each other and customers for better profitability. Independent isn't the key word, says Hugoson, interdependent is.

"Association Perspectives" represents the views of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, South Dakota Wheat Inc., and the Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council.