Harvest 2025 was a special one for our family as it marked my younger brother’s first harvest since he’s been back at the farm full time. That means he is currently in the process of marketing his own grain for the first time. I don’t know everything about grain marketing, nor do I claim to, but since I assist a lot of farmers across the country in marketing grain on their operations, he asked for a little advice on getting started.
I put together a little cheat sheet and I’m sharing it with you. I am a believer that keeping it simple and mastering the basics is the secret to success when it comes to marketing. So, whether you’ve been marketing grain forever (like our grandpa, who just harvested his 65th crop) or this is your first year, hopefully these reminders can serve you well now and into the future:
Step 1: Know your operation
A lot of the work that a good marketer does takes place long before making a sale. This winter offseason is the time to be doing the planning for the 2026 crop. What is your breakeven price? What is your storage situation – are you able to put some grain in the bin, or does it all need to be delivered at harvest? When do you need to have grain sold in order to meet your cash needs? When you factor all of these things in, marketing becomes more than simply trying to sell at the high. If you expect the high price of corn to come in June, but you need to be sold by March, you’ve got to adjust your goals and expectations in order to match your financial or logistical limits.
Step 2: Know the fundamentals
Once you have a handle on when, where and at what minimum price you need to sell, it’s time to execute the plan. Our goal is to find the best price within the time frame we established in Step 1. To get an idea of what that price might be, use some basic supply and demand data.
Using the Ending Stocks and Stocks to Use Ratio from each monthly WASDE report, we can get an idea of what price range we can expect over the course of the marketing year. Do this by using past years to find similarities in terms of supply and demand and look at what prices did during those comparable years.
You can also look at a seasonal price chart to get an idea of when prices tend to peak throughout the year. Did you know that in the lifetime of a bushel of corn (from planting to harvest to storage), the highest price historically is during planting? In 75% of the years since 2014, the high price for corn has already come and gone by the time it’s harvested, even if you store it until July.
Step 3: Be disciplined
This is the one that everyone knows but is so much easier said than done. The easiest way I find to maintain discipline is to do everything possible to take the human element out of making a sale. I do this by dividing the total number of bushels I have to sell into multiple equal increments. Make your increments something simple like five sales of 20% or 10 sales of 10%. Then place offers with your buyer at different prices throughout the expected price range that we figured in Step 2. For example, if you are expecting corn to have a range of $4.50-$5, you can place five offers of 20% each at $4.55, $4.65, $4.75, $4.85 and $4.95.
This streamlines a lot of decisions when trying to make a sale, including how many bushels to sell and at what price. If you establish all of these offers before you need them, they will automatically fill when the price reaches your target.
While it can feel too simple, this strategy offers a highly effective way to make sure you are getting bushels sold at a price that works with your marketing plan. We get into the most trouble when we expect a rally to continue forever, and when it doesn’t, we miss out on selling our bushels at a profitable level. This strategy helps to fight that.
With all of the newsworthy events happening today, it’s impossible to know what a market is going to do or when it’s going to be at its peak. The best we can do is make sound decisions that fit the scope of what our operation needs. These steps work well for my clients and operation, and I hope you find some benefit in them as well.
For more in-depth discussion, reach Sweeney at 815-691-2672.
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