A four-session series known as Women Marketing Grain is being offered this winter by Iowa State University Extension to assist women in learning how to market old- and new-crop corn and soybeans. Each of the four classes is three hours long, for a total of 12 contact hours for the course. The Women Marketing Grain Series is offered several times during the year at various locations in Iowa.

The next series starts Feb. 4 at Boone in central Iowa, and another series will begin at Washington in southeast Iowa with a Feb. 19 starting date. The Boone series will meet for four consecutive Monday evenings: Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25 at the DMACC Boone campus, 1125 Hancock Drive, in Boone.

Registration deadline is Jan. 28 for the Boone series. Contact the Courter Center, DMACC Boone Campus, Boone, Iowa. To register for the Washington series, contact Washington County Extension, Washington, Iowa. Classes for the series in eastern Iowa began Jan. 8 at Monticello.

In this course, women will learn how to:

• recognize crop marketing terms and sources for obtaining current futures and cash market prices

• understand basis, futures carry, cost of grain ownership, supply-demand fundamentals and technical chart signals

• recognize seasonal price trends

• use crop marketing tools including spot cash sales, forward contracts, hedge-to-arrive contracts, futures hedging, put and call options

• develop a crop marketing plan

At Boone, classes are 6 to 9 p.m. with a light supper at 5:30 p.m. Registration for this series is $75. If you have questions, contact Alex Merk at 515-432-3882 or [email protected]. More information about the Women Marketing Grain Series is at aep.iastate.edu/womeninag.

Series teaches tips for profitability
“With unpredictable crop prices and tight margins, marketing can make the difference between profit and loss in corn and soybean production,” says Kelvin Leibold, an ISU Extension farm management specialist. “How well farmers get paid for a year’s worth of work can be wrapped up in just a few marketing decisions.”

In the series, women learn how to manage price risk by using tools such as forward contracts, futures and options contracts, alternative marketing contracts, and crop insurance. Participants will work in a computer lab to access online decision tools and develop a marketing plan. The women learn marketing strategies and how to stay on track for long-term marketing success.

“At the end of the four sessions, participants will know more about identifying crop price trends and marketing costs,” he adds, “along with understanding price movements, using crop marketing tools, and developing a crop marketing plan with price, time and financial goals in mind.”

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