Thank you for subscribing to Farmers for the Future from Agriculture Online. Don't miss a single issue. Please add future@email.agriculture.com to your address book, especially if you are a Yahoo!, America Online, or Hotmail user. This will ensure that you'll receive deliveries from us in a timely and consistent manner. Visit us online: Farmers for the Future • Agriculture Online Farmers for the Future is also sponsored by DEKALB, provider of superior performance, proven results, the latest trait innovations and exclusive hybrids with high-yielding genetics. FARMERS FOR THE FUTURE: SEPTEMBER 2008 Featured farmers Calls, puts...what? Tackling options trading Renewed acreage battle looming for '09 Bryan Doherty: Grains fighting bearish outside markets Mike McGinnis: CBOT -- Friend or foe? SF Offers: The Ag Planner SF Summer School; Go Site Seeing Click on the above to jump to a particular section of the newsletter. ADVERTISEMENT Count on DEKALB Corn. When Performance Counts. 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Visit your local DEKALB dealer or DEKALB.com to learn more. - Learn more >>   FEATURED FARMERS Eyes to the future Earlier this year, Josh and Jeremy Gerwin of Bradner, Ohio, closed on 78 acres of flat, tiled land about 25 miles south of Lake Erie. If all goes well, it could be the start of another generation of Gerwins on northwest Ohio land they've farmed since after the Civil War. Both brothers' weekday jobs are in conservation. Josh, 26, is a district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Jeremy, 24, is western Lake Erie basin conservationist for Wood County's soil and water conservation district. - Read more >>   The many ways to get started Some are building on the foundations laid by earlier generations of their families. Others are looking to roads less traveled and new opportunities to find success in the agriculture industry. Read about some of the many ways young and beginning farmers can get into the business at the Farmers for the Future story archive on Agriculture Online. Maybe there's a family whose circumstances mirror your own, or you can simply pick up a tip or two on how to make your farm aspirations a reality. - See all the latest Farmers for the Future >> BACK TO TOP >> INTERACT Calls, puts...what? Tackling options trading Options trading, with its exclusive terminology and specific, concrete relationships between market positions, can be quite confusing. One farmer is looking for help. "There are of course a myriad of different kinds of spreads, each attempting to accomplish a certain goal. My current question, though, is the idea of buying a put and selling a call. Both positions profit if the price falls. So, if purchasing a put, a 5,000-bushel bearish position, while at the same time selling a call, also a 5,000-bushel bearish position, how can we figure we have a 5,000 bushel position? What am I missing?" he writes. What one options trader sees coming up in the marketplace Can't see the video? Click here >> It's all about the "gross" position, says another Marketing Talk member. "Since you did this at the same time, what you are trading is the difference in value between these two 5,000-bushel contracts, or the spread." Options are basically forms of insurance for different market moves: "If I want to insure against the market going a lot higher, I buy calls. If I want to insure against the market going a lot lower, I buy a put," says Chicago options trader Scott Shellady. Does this all make sense to you? Join the conversation with your questions or answers. - Join the discussion >> - Also: See more from options trader Scott Shellady and others from the recent Marketing Talk Meeting >> - Read more from the meeting >> BACK TO TOP >> NEWS Renewed acreage battle looming for '09 An almost $50-per-barrel drop in the price of crude oil, a sliding stock market and other fundamentally bearish factors have helped roll the grain markets further down the hill in the last two months. But, with recent USDA reports indicating lower corn and soybean yields and one of the lowest stocks-to-usage ratios in history for corn, grain stocks going into 2009 will likely spark another intense battle for acres for next year's crops. And, sky-high input costs for corn will just add fuel to the fire. - Read more >> - Talk: Weighing '09 planting options >> More news for Farmers for the Future: - USDA's Schafer: Biofuels positives underreported >> - Has big oil won the election? >> - How precise should you go with fertilizer? >> - ACRE: A look under the hood and a test drive >> BACK TO TOP >> MARKETING Bryan Doherty: Grains fighting bearish outside markets "Most commodity markets, especially grains, were in an uptrend during the winter, extending gains further during flooding concerns in May and June. Since then, markets have made a significant turnaround with prices now sustaining a downtrend," writes Market Analyst Bryan Doherty. "Now, the obvious question is, how far can markets go down after reaching record high levels? Or, are the markets merely making a correction before their next advance upward?" - Read more >> - Talk: Grains decoupled from outside markets? >> More Markets information: - CFTC: More information needed on speculators' trade influence >> - Roy Smith: Could this be the start? >> - Louise Gartner: Crop report is no help >> BACK TO TOP >> VIEWS CBOT: Friend or foe? "Lack of price convergence between cash and futures, too much institutional investment, and increased margin calls are all reasons why many market participants say the Chicago Board of Trade is not the farmer's friend anymore," writes Agriculture Online Markets Editor Mike McGinnis. "It depends on which side of the fence you're on, I guess." - Read more >> - See what more of our Views writes are saying >> BACK TO TOP >> SF OFFERS The Ag Planner Ag Planner IV, a new book by Don Jonovic, is designed to help family farm business members and advisers identify and answer key questions in planning for a successful operation. The 132-page book spiral-bound workbook includes questionnaires and analysis forms. It is a manual that can be used as a living record. Written by Don and Pamela Jonovic, owners of Family Business Management Services. Don is also a featured writer in Successful Farming magazine. - Buy the book >> BACK TO TOP >> MORE RESOURCES Go Site Seeing Whether you're looking for tips on sharpening your communication skills, learning more about the resources available through your local FSA office, or looking to get involved in your state's National Farm Transition Network organization, you can find it all and more in the Farmers for the Future Site Seeing section, a collection of helpful links for beginning farmers. - Check out more helpful links >> BACK TO TOP >> SPONSOR Farmers for the Future is sponsored by The Farm Credit System Foundation, Inc., whose mission is to assist young, beginning and small farmers and ranchers to thrive as businesspersons in their local and the global agricultural marketplaces. Visit them online at www.fcsfoundation.org. ADVERTISEMENT Order Successful Farming and save Order Successful Farming magazine now and get 2 years for the regular price of 1! 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