Grain marketing advice
By Tim Ennis

     For most of the Corn Belt, harvest time is on the horizon. A 30 cent per bushel gain on the Chicago Board corn price on Sept. 15 was a reflection of the jittery uncertainty about when Jack Frost might adjust the final numbers of the size of the 2009 corn crop.
     By the time the Oct./Nov. Reporter reaches producers, the answer may be in. In any case, the benefits of forward contracting new crop corn and soybeans prior to June are clear for another year, 2009.
     Looking forward, new crop 2010 corn can be hitched to a board price that is 50 cents per bushel higher than the December 2009 crop. Producers should talk with their National Farmers grain representatives about these forward-looking opportunities to build and protect prices.
     History has shown the advantage of pricing grain three to nine months prior to the period when you need to deliver and have the money. Some of our producers are enjoying tremendous advantages based on pricing action we started for them as much as two years prior to delivery
     Our Grain Marketing Plus program recommends multiple sales spread throughout the historically most favorable pricing months.
     Our staff will help you lay out an annual plan that will capture pricing opportunities any time of year, but especially using those five months. No one knows the future, but the odds are relatively high (80 percent plus) that 2010 will have a pattern of low prices at harvest time, but higher in the January through June period. And, it is certainly in your best interest to take advantage of that pattern.
     The USDA and other forecasters tend to project yields and crop size as optimistically as possible during the growing season. Often any adjustment downward based on actual final results that would be favorable to improved prices will happen too late to benefit the grain farmer with less than adequate drying and storage capacity.
     That is another reason forward contracting well in advance puts you and your National Farmers grain sales rep in a better negotiating position than last-minute sales, especially during harvest.
     There is a real risk that if frost delays until Oct. 15, or later that buying and trading interests will drive corn prices substantially lower than they were on Sept. 14, 2009.
     We wish you a good harvest, and hope you have good forward contracts through National Farmers to go along with it.