With unpredictable crop prices and tight margins, marketing can make the difference in the profitability of corn and soybean production. How well farmers get paid for a year’s worth of work can be wrapped up in just a few marketing decisions.

Iowa State University is offering a special series of four Extension meetings in central Iowa for women to learn how to sharpen their skills at marketing grain. “No prior crop marketing experience is necessary,” says Steve Johnson, ISU Extension farm management specialist. “But if you have been marketing grain from your farm, that experience will likely prove to be beneficial to help you learn more in this series of classes.”

Use marketing tools, manage price risk
The course will be taught by ISU Extension specialists and local ag business professionals with grain marketing experience and know-how.

Women will learn how to manage price risk using marketing tools like 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 to develop a marketing plan. Women will learn marketing strategies and how to stay on track for long-term marketing success.

The four-session Women Marketing Grain Series will be offered to assist women in developing plans for marketing old- and new-crop corn and soybeans. The series of meetings begins Feb. 5 and will meet over four consecutive Monday evenings Feb. 5, 12, 19 and 26, at the DMACC West Campus, 5959 Grand Ave., West Des Moines. Registration is due Jan. 29.

In this course, women will learn how to:

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

• understand basis, futures carry, cost of grain ownership, supply-and-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, and the use of put and call options

• develop a crop marketing plan

Classes are 6 to 9 p.m., with a meal served at 5 p.m. Registration for this series is $75. To register, contact Brooke Blessington at 515-462-1001 or [email protected].

Source: Iowa State University