How far out can we go when looking at pricing crops? Decided to stretch my marketing in southern Minnesota.

The first thing to look at is how far out the new crop contracts are trading. With corn we can see that December of 2008 is trading so that is a start to see what is available. The next thing to check is what marketing methods are offered by your delivery points. Some are willing to go out that far and some will not. You can protect the price yourself with futures but be sure and have your lender involved. With crop insurance we know we can protect the bushels you are selling.

The statement I usually hear is, ìI have not sold my current crop so how can I sell out any fartherî. Producers if they want to stay profitable need to be looking to the future on some of their crop because marketing opportunities in the front are very short lived and emotion comes in limiting sales. Crop insurance and call options can give producers some comfort if we have weather scares but 80% of the time we do not have them.

How far out can we go when looking at pricing crops? Decided to stretch my marketing in southern Minnesota.