GrainWaves

Crop merchandising has been stubbornly analog for decades. Scale tickets, phone calls, and texts are the way business gets done. Inconsistent standards, incomplete information, and lack of visibility into what’s happening have been accepted as the way things work. The good news? Technology can help overcome the major barriers between grain merchandising and an efficient digital future. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

When working on her masters in agricultural economics, Jacqueline Holland focused her research on large farm decision-making and precision crop technology. She brings that strong knowledge of large agribusiness management to her daily reporting as a grain market analyst with Farm Futures. Tune in to hear Holland’s thoughts on the market, technology, and industry stories she’s keeping an eye on headed into the 2022 growing season. Note: this episode of GrainWaves was recorded in October of 2021. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Angie Setzer, a grain marketing specialist you probably know by her twitter handle, Goddess of Grain, joins GrainWaves to talk farmer mindsets, the future of ag transportation, and digital media as a powerful tool for education. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Jason Wheeler, co-host of Elevator’s Cut and grain merchandising specialist at White Commercial, stops by to talk with Rodney on how a strong, local grain buyer can be so important to a town’s economy. When the buyer makes more money, the farmer makes more money, too. That may sound counterintuitive at first (but it's true!).    Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Weren’t able to attend the NGFA convention this year? Rodney breaks down 3 trends he saw from the show floor — including the importance of end-to-end technology solutions — alongside Kearney Klein, a logistics executive who leads transportation solutions for Indigo. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Calling in from western Iowa, grain marketer Thad England gives an update on what he’s seeing and hearing from farmers and buyers as corn & beans continue their historic rally. Why does this year feel different than 2012? Which pricing contracts are screaming hot? How is new crop selling? Listen in for this and more as  Thad talks about why it’s such an exciting time to be an American farmer.    Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

The growth of analytics and data science in the grain business will be a trend to watch over the next decade. And it won’t be us vs. machines. It will be us + machines. Because tech will need to prioritize human relationships for it to succeed in the buying and selling of crops. Hear why from Mark Johnson of GrainBridge. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Kearney Klein knows carriers don’t want to spend more time sourcing loads. He knows farmers and grain buyers want faster access to freight, with more clarity around rates. He’s seen how the whole agricultural transport industry could benefit from a digital platform for managing business. That’s what he came to Indigo to build: a logistics network for the future. Hear what his team is working on, and how it connects to the Grain Marketplace.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Whether or not a price is ever “good” depends on two factors, says Jake Mower, a data scientist working on the technology behind Indigo Marketplace: whether the outcome was good, and whether the decision-making process to get to that outcome was good. Frequently, those aspects are aligned, but it’s not always the case. How can you start thinking more specifically — about what’s a good price for you? Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

From digital trading systems to artificial intelligence, AgYield has built a portfolio of powerful technology tools that simplify the grain marketing process for farmers. Their vision, when founding the company over a decade ago, was ahead of the industry. Now, they are on the cusp of agriculture’s digital evolution, offering a series of fully customizable farm revenue management programs, like managed pricing. “If you are going to enroll bushels in a managed pricing program,” says AgYield founding member Justin Kelly, “you should learn a lot about how those strategies are set.” So dive in to AgYield’s approach, when they were founded, why they believe in always having a Plan B, what it means to support education for the next generation of farmers, and understand the power of working with Justin and his team. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Grain marketing specialist Thad England joins Rodney to talk end-of-year markets, and what growers should have in their plans heading into 2021. Plus: why do former seed salespeople make the best grain originators?   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

As the South American export market has grown in importance over the last twenty years, so too has the region’s impact on futures prices. What details should you pay attention to as we head into 2021?   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Rodney walks through why the end-of-March planting intentions report from the USDA is the most important crop report of the year for domestic farmers.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Will the use of blockchain and distributed ledgers fundamentally change how grain is traded? The short answer is no – but the the transparency these systems bring will be essential for food traceability.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Find the three ways to "unwind" or settle a corn futures contract when the time comes.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

In the second part of our interview with farmer turned grain marketing advisor Dennis DeLaughter, we dig into the components of his "technical" system: how it rapidly identifies elevated risk, keeps farmers within the top 25% of the market price, and handles unexpected situations like derecho and COVID-19. Plus: Dennis discusses what strategies he has turned to more and more over the years, as well as the ones he has kept away from.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

Rodney and Gabe walk through the challenges, and possible solutions for both growers and buyers when executing a cash spot grain contract. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

As 2020 harvest gets into full swing, Gabe and Rodney take a look at the market, and why $4 corn may not be as far away as it previously felt. Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

After farming for forty years in Texas, Dennis DeLaughter sold his stake in the operation to focus solely on grain marketing. He had -- since 1981 -- been intrigued by the math behind market movements, and wanted to work harder on their unpredictability. Now, Dennis has built a grain marketing service for rice farmers, offered through Indigo's managed pricing program, that "talks the risk" in the futures and cash markets every day with sound technical analysis. Tune in for more on the strategic blueprint behind Dennis' plan, his time spent on one of the world's oldest stock exchanges, and why he thinks COVID-19 had such an impact on commodity prices. Plus: Why Gabe sees history as a "data point and not a constraint," and advocates for not harping on past market events.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.

The earliest freeze of the past decade crept across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota early this month. If you're staring down frost-bitten corn that hadn't reached black layer, follow these grain marketing tips to still turn a lower-quality crop into cash.   Like what you hear? Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating, and share GrainWaves with your friends and family.   If you feel like stress has been negatively effecting your life and decisions please reach out to one of the resources below: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Illinois Warm Line: 1-866-359-7953 Indiana Suicide Prevention Text Line: Send IN to 741741  Iowa Concern Hotline: 1-800-4471985 Kansas Regional Concern Hotline: 1-800-447-1985 Arkansas Mental Health Support Hotline: 1-844-763-0198 Alabama Crisis Support Hotline: 1-205-323-7777  Michigan Association for Suicide Prevention: 1-734-624-8328  University of Missouri Cooperative Extension: 1-800-995-8503  Minnesota Farm and Rural Helpline: 833-600-2670 South Dakota Farmers Union Stress Hotline: 1-800-691-4336 Mental Health America of North Dakota: (701) 255-3692 Nebraska Rural Response Hotline: 800-464-0258 Ohio Crisis Text Line: Send 4HOPE to 741741 Wisconsin Farm Center Hotline: 800-942-2474