5 Reasons You Should Think About Marketing Now, Not Just At Harvest

In a recent survey, we found that only 27% of farmers are managing risk by forward selling their grain or using risk management tools. If you haven’t been thinking about your marketing plan yet, here are some reasons why you should start:

1. Raising crops means you have risk on the table. You can use risk management tools to help eliminate some of that risk.

• Think of it like crop insurance: you put a lot of time and effort into raising your crop and have crop insurance to eliminate the risk of losing money if your crop is damaged or destroyed. Risk management tools help you eliminate the risk of selling at a price that isn’t profitable for your operation.
  
  

2. Historically, prices are lower during harvest and higher during the growing season, so spot sales at harvest aren’t the best way to sell at a profitable price.
   
   

3. Having a plan to market your crops throughout the year keeps you focused on profitability, helping you make better decisions about in-season expenses.

   • With the free FarmLogs Marketing tool, you can set goals for your marketing plan right in your account.
     
     

4. Even if you don’t want to take advantage of risk management tools like futures and options, there are a lot of cash contracts available through your elevator that can help you eliminate risk.
   
   

5. You can always start small—try forward selling a small percentage of your crop. A lot of growers also work with a marketing advisor to help them make more informed decisions.

   • Once you've booked contracts, you can track them right in your FarmLogs account to see how they impact your breakeven price.