Many farmers use advisory services, marketing gurus, commodity brokers, local elevators, or a combination of all of the above to aid them in managing risk and finding good prices for their crops. I am no different. I have used a few different guys over the years, but this July I woke up to find that I had been dropped.

Summers are busy. I don’t like watching a downward market. So, I had pretty much shut off all the noise about commodities by the time July came. We were on the final softball trip to Florida when my dad called telling me there had been a surge in the market and suggested I should consider selling some of my wheat we had stored in the bins.

Doing due diligence, I went to my email to open up the latest commentary from my adviser. The freshest email was three weeks old! I checked spam. I checked trash. Nothing! I shot off a quick text and got the response back: ‘You hadn’t done anything for a while, I figured you were working with somebody else. I took you off the list.’ No phone call or email after more than a decade of working together. Had he just called and asked me to go on the subscription, I would have done it.

Since that time, I have been keeping a look out for a new marketing guy. In January, I went to a meeting to hear a guy talk. I liked what they were doing, but it did not end up working out. So, I asked around a little bit more and received a couple of recommendations.

I called one of them. He came out for a meeting and we seemed to be on the same page.

Everything seemed to be a good fit. I checked references, and a few days later I signed up for the service. I did the paperwork and contract last week. This week we had our first virtual meeting. All went well.

I’m glad to be back in the proactive mode of managing risk!