When finances are tight, one key to keeping the farm is managing income with an effective grain marketing plan, one that accounts for a farmer’s cost of production, balance sheet and cash flow.
The two-day, in-depth, hands-on workshop “Grain Marketing: Dollar and Cents” will help row-crop farmers create effective grain marketing plans specific to their operation and financial condition. The cost to participate is $100 per person.
“Grain Marketing: Dollar and Cents” is designed to strengthen participants’ ability to understand financial benchmarking, improve their basic marketing knowledge, develop accurate production cost estimates and write a grain marketing plan. The workshop will take participants through a case-study farm, making them evaluate different financial situations: one with a strong financial standing and cash on hand, the other a tighter scenario where they would need to rely on grain sales to make payments on operating loans.
Using a game called Marketing in a New Era, participants will compare the potential effects of different grain marketing strategies on the case-study farm.
Those who complete the workshops should gain the skills to do the financial analysis of their own farms, and develop a grain marketing plan for their particular operation.
Dates and locations:
Mead, Jan. 30-31: Eastern Nebraska Research and Development Center, 1071 County Road G. To register, call 402-624-8030.
Scottsbluff, Feb. 5-6: Panhandle Research and Extension Center, 4502 Ave I. To register, call 308-632-1230.
North Platte, Feb. 12-13: West Central Research and Extension Center, 402 West State Farm Road. To register, call 308-696-6734.
Jessica Groskopf, associate extension educator, said the workshops recognize the uniqueness of each farm.
“We know that there’s a lot of variation in the financial well-being of farms. We need to consider how that affects an individual’s grain marketing strategy. If I have a different financial portfolio than my neighbor, I’m probably going take a different approach to grain marketing,” she said. “If I have a really strong financial standing, I have more flexibility with the sales that I can make. If I’m in a tighter financial position, I need to really plan out my grain sales so that I’m meeting my cash flow obligations.”
Workshop organizers hope graduates can evaluate the financial standing of their farms and develop a grain marketing strategy that compliments their current financial situation.
“The hope is that we will give participants the skills to do the financial analysis so they can go home and look at their balance sheet and their cash flow statement and really utilize them to develop a grain marketing plan,” Groskopf said.
