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How to Avoid the Terrible Tweens of Grain Merchandising

How to Avoid the Terrible Tweens of Grain Merchandising

And no, this is not in reference to those somewhat awkward transition moments between childhood and the teenage years; rather, it’s referring to those somewhat awkward transition moments between two consecutive crop harvests. Whether it’s between wheat and corn harvest in the Midsouth, or bean and corn harvest in the upper Midwest, these moments have the tendency to be some of the most stressful and difficult to manage periods in your entire grain merchandising year. Even the best laid plans to deal with these time frames can sometimes take a back seat to the dynamic duo of harvest: Space and Logistics. It is the time and effort poured into these preharvest, flexible merchandising roadmaps that allow basis traders to maintain their bearings in the midst of a bumper crop followed by another bumper crop, one such scenario as we appear to be approaching this very moment.

Imagine for just a few seconds what it would feel like to be caught in this crop-to-crop squeeze, blindly trying to make it through without losing your mind, taking whatever the market is willing to give and on terms that likely aren’t in your best interest, all the while trying to keep your head above water regarding your space. Not something that one would tend to dwell upon fondly, and as a seasoned merchandiser this is a situation that you plan to avoid if at all possible. Now imagine trying to manage this scenario for three, five or even twenty different locations! That will never happen, right? Until you get the call. “Hey, I know it’s a week before corn harvest, but I have to get this wheat out of my bins to make room! What can we do?” Well, if you have farmer customers who have come out of one crop with their bins brimming with grain, have nothing sold ahead, and are trying to get said bins cleaned out and grain moved prior to the next crop, then you have the potential to be forced to deal with just such a scenario, many times over.

As important as planning ahead is for your facility, it’s just as important for you to help your farmer customers in planning ahead for their facility; after all, you are trying to merchandise one overarching position, and having the off-farm portion of your strategy lacking can cause a loss of opportunity to the producer, a customer service debacle for your business, and undue stress on all parties involved from farmer to freight hauler to merchandiser.

It all comes down to being proactive with your producers. Use every opportunity available to remind them of the importance of the basic need of a forward looking, simple yet successful, profit based farm-marketing plan. Once these conversations turn into actions, your producer’s plan will be able to fit seamlessly into your overall strategy for the crop, thus making both of your jobs simpler and keeping more hairs from turning gray.

So how do you get to the point where that phone call never even happens? Our Direct Ship course can help you develop an effective off farm merchandising plan that turns potential headaches into profitable scenarios.

Click Here to Learn More About the Direct Ship Course

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