Farm Bureau Ag Marketing Contest
Tests Juniors & Seniors
by Casey Amerin
December 16, 2009
On Tuesday, December 15, the juniors and seniors all had the opportunity to take part in the Farm Bureau Ag Marketing Contest, which was put on by Mark Nelson, Ag Marketing Director for Farm Bureau.
Mr. Nelson started the session by teaching and describing to the students some of the most common ways farm commodities can be marketed, including sales at harvest, forward contracting, puts, futures options, and calls. The learning session also included a short summary of risk management dealing with insurances such at Catastrophic (CAT), Revenue Protection, and Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI).
After the teaching session, Mr. Nelson provided an interactive learning competition. The competition gave a scenario in which the competing teams were wheat farmers that had planted 500 acres of wheat. The competition consisted of 5 different opportunities starting in December up through harvest to price forward contracts, buy puts, or sell futures options. In March of the scenario, the students also had the opportunity to purchase insurance. At the end of the competition, the roll of a die determined that the groups each produced 52 bushels per acre, or 26,000 bushels total. After adding all gains from the futures options and puts, delivering their contracted grain, and selling the remaining grain at the elevator upon delivery, minus the operating costs, the winning team was determined based upon the team that was able to produce the most income.
Ethan Higle, Karmyn Heberly, and Lauren Cyr were the members of the winning team. They each won a $10 gift certificate to Hodge Podge here in Glasco from Deb Beems, Farm Bureau Representative for Cloud County. Mrs. Beems also provided refreshments and drinks for the students involved. At the conclusion of the event, Kobe Cyr, GHS Senior, said “We kept our puts when we should have sold them. So instead of $80,000, we ended up with $13,000. I learned that it is hard to predict the market.”
(L to R): Marketing teammates Jordan Holle, Ethan Prochaska, & Dalton Palmer discuss their next marketing move during the Farm Bureau Ag Marketing Contest.
Farm Bureau Ag Marketing Contest winning team (L to R): Lauren Cyr, Ethan Higle, Mr. Amerin, Ag Education and FFA Advisor, and Karmyn Heberly.
