Are You a Good Grain Marketer?

Performance Checkup

Here are three ways NOT to measure your performance.

Against your neighbor: To compare selling prices with nearby farmers makes for interesting talk at the coffee shop, but not much more. Besides, your neighbor may be exaggerating, just like your neighbor’s neighbor (er, that’s you).

Against the crop year high or low prices: Comparing your price to the poorest price in the market is setting the bar too low. Comparing your price to the highest price is depressing. Nobody sells all of his grain at the highest price in the market.

Against profitability: A profitable farm should be your ultimate goal, but it is not a good standard for assessing your pricing performance. It has been hard not to sell at a profitable price in recent years. However, from a marketing perspective, you may have done a better job in a year when prices were low and unprofitable, but your pricing decisions held your losses to a minimum.