Lehigh Seminar Provides Grain Marketi
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
TREXLERTOWN (Lehigh
Co.) If you’re looking for a bet
ter price for your grains, don't wait
until harvest time to sell your com
modity. Chances are, you’re going
to get close to the bottom of the
price range of the last few years,
said a marketing specialist with the
Maryland Cooperative Extension
Service.
Instead, consider using futures
contracts (a method of securing the
best price despite fluctuations in
final cash price for the commodity)
or options (insurance against low
prices) to get maximum dollars for
your grain.
Whatever is done, it’s important
to gather all the information about
the marketing alternatives before
making a decision, according to
Kevin McNew, marketing special
ist for the Maryland Cooperative
Extension.
McNew spoke to about 30 grain
producers at the Grain Marketing
Seminar Tuesday evening at the
Pied Piper Restaurant near
Trexlertown.
If you don’t do any marketing
before harvest—sell your grain at
harvest and don’t make use of for
ward contracts and don’t use
futures or options then in the
last five years, “you priced your
grain in the worst half of the price
range, most of the time,’’ said
McNew.
For wheat producers, waiting to
sell at harvest has meant obtaining
the lowest half of the price range in
all of the last five years. For com
growers, the lowest half has been
obtained in three of the last five
years.
That’s why, said McNew, it’s
important “to study marketing and
why it’s important to use market
ing” to get the best price.
In a nutshell, one of the most
Manheim PA 17545 • (717) 665 4300 • Located I mileN of Manheimonßt 72 or 5 miles S of PA Turnpike Exit 20
19 tfi Annual Dutch Country
Benefit Auction
Friday, April 28,1995
Chicken BBQ Dinner 300-7 30 P M
Friday Night Auction 700 PM
Wirmss Auction 800 P M
Sale Preview
Craft and Bake Stands will be open
Auction Conducted by. Omar Landis Auction Service
1. Omar Landis and fay M. Wltman • AU001127-L
Not responsible for loss or accidents • Not responsible for typographical errors • Sale Chairman Mark Zimmerman
Certificates— 11:00 a.m. Hot Air Balkxm Ride by Great Adventure Balkxm Club
• Catered Meal for 30 by the MCDS Staff • Night for two at Millstream Lodge • Family Portrait
Certificates • Golf Passes and Golf "Crock” (Par Line) • Many other certificates
Art Auction — 12:00 NOON We have a fine collection of Originals, Limited and
Open Editions and Pnnts, as well as Collector Plates Here’s a sampling “Summer Birds’’ by Steve
Leed • "Hunter's Haven” by Terry Redhn • “ Prepared for the Season” by Terry Redhn • “ Watt and
Shand” by Deb Smith • "Hershey Mill Farmhouse ” by Joann Hensel • “State" by Arlene Fisher • “S/eigfi
Bells Rmg” by Linda Nelson Stocks • Henry Lapp pnnts • Susie D Riehl • Many more artists'
Special Feature Items 12:30 P.M. Windsor Child’s Rocker • Windsor
Baby Cradle • Windsor Gmtinuous Arm Bench • Tiffany-style Hanging Lamp (Multi-colored Fruit
design) • Two-Story G>lomal Dollhrxise (33x24x33) by Ben) E Brubaker, Lancaster • Limited
Edition (sold out) Pnnt ’Repairs” (Popular Antique Tractor Pnnt by Dave Bamhou.se) • Limited
Edition Pnnt “Star Bam” by David Brumbach • “Manheim Christian Day Schwl 1995” (ongmal oil
painting by Linn Longenecker • 16-20 foot Village Green Zelkova Tree, planted on your property
• Fmtball autographed by Manheim Central Fmtball team • .md much more 1
Quilt Auction 1:00 P.M. Over thirty-five quality Lancaster County handmade
Quilts, including • Gnintry Love • Hershey Quilt (off white, old pattern) • Manner’s Compass
• Gnintry Lily • Spinning Star • Round About Log Cabin • Rose Wreath • Gill of the Wild
Furniture, Antiques & Collectibles Net! Foltz Pottery • Manheim and Lititz
Crocks and Pottery • Tiffany-style Limps • Slatted Porch Rockers • Small Oak Rrxind Table
• Marble Top Tabk • Tin Table Limp • Hanging Tin Light • Replica 4-shelf Single Jelly Cupboard
• and much more'
New & Miscellaneous Items Handmade Game Board • "Theme" Gift Baskets
by Students • John I\*ere 4020 Pedal Tractor with Wagon • Luts of Bedding Plants • Pioneer Seed
Com • Wall Quilt Rack • Marble Roller Toy • Liwn Wishing Well • Child’s Bum • and much more'
common ways to insure a good
price is to examine locking in the
price under a forward contract.
That contract is made in the plant
ing season for the commodity at
harvest time. The price, amount,
and delivery are set.
Producers can shoot for a more
realistic goal getting in the
middle of the price range or a little
higher—by making use of a diffe
rent approach, which involves
more risk, through futures con
tracts. That is an agreement made
by the seller to the buyer to lock in
a price today in the futures market
what the seller will do tomorrow in
the cash market, said McNew.
Through hedging, or selling the
futures price today for the grain at
harvest, growers can provide a
cushion for themselves for their
product if the price rises or falls.
The best contract is written when
the “basis,” the cash price minus
the futures price, is, on average,
relatively high.
Many factors go into determin
ing an “effective price” using
futures. But the high basis price is
the key to determining a good
contract.
Another approach would be to
use a form of insurance, in which a
premium is paid to insure that, in
case the cash price of a grain falls
at harvest time, the grower will
still get a better price, depending
on the size of the premium paid.
This is called a “put option.” The
rate the grower pays will deter
mine when exactly the contract is
written and what the futures
indicate.
Whatever the case, growers
should consider all their choices
before making a decision to use
either futures or options in market
ing grain, according to McNew.
And sellers should do their home
work and calculate what the bene
fits can be.
Saturday, April 29,1995
Country Brealdast frOO-IOOOAM
Auction begins 9-00 A M (sharp)
Craft Stands
Bake Stands
Pig Roast and much more 1
grb. ir was sponsored on Tuesday evening by Penn State and the Lehigh
Valley Grain Marketing Club. From left, Jeff Patton, Penn State marketing agent; Larry
Turner, secretary of the marketing club; Dan Hunsicker, member of the club; Kevin
McNew, Maryland grain marketing specialist; Kyle Hennlnger, president of the club;
and Don Newhard, vice president of the club. Photo by Andy Andrtwa
At the seminar, worksheets pro
vided information on how to deter
mine futures and options contracts.
“What it tells you is, you should
do this math before you go sign a
forward contract,” said the market
ing specialist “Do the math and
figure out is the price you're get
ting from your forward dealer, the
elevator, comparable to this
price?”
EAYFA
EPHRATA (Lancaster
Co.) —Ephrata Area Young Far
mers monthly meeting was held
on April 11 at the Earl G. Martin
Farm on Royer Road.
Rob Kauffman, research mana
ger for Brubaker Consulting, pre
sented a training session on pesti
cide spraying and com planter
calibration. This seminar was edu-
“THERE’S MORE TO IT THAN JUST NPK”
For over 47 years, farmers throughout the Mid-Atlantic Area from New York to
Virginia have produced millions of dollars of crops using Lebanon Extra fertilizer.
Lebanon Extra is an ammoniated, homogenous, granular NPK fertilizer. With the
increased emphasis on using less and precise applications of plant food, Lebanon
Extra provides the nutrient sources that you can depend on. and not just NPK but also
secondary and six micro-nutrients. The nutrient integrity of Lebanon Extra is superior
to bulk blend fertilizer products. When using row applications or banding accurate
amounts of plant food it can be important to use a safe, quality, uniform grade product.
If you are using a blend with MAP compare the value of Lebanon Extra.
At the meeting, McNew recom
mended that growers who want to
market grain put only SO percent of
the year’s expected production
with a forward contract The other
50 percent of the production can be
placed in options.
The meeting was sponsored by
Penn State and the Lehigh Valley
Grain Marketing Club. Penn State
provides more information regard
Holds Training Session
cational to aid in the proper hand
ling and application of agriculture
enhancement products.
The planter adjustments to use
the most profitable amount of
seeds and at proper depths are
essential to making the most pro
fitable result. In addition, the fer
tilizer and any other additives
need the same careful handling.
LEBANON EXTRA PLANT FOOD
Ammoniated Granular Fertilizer
Homogenous
Secondary and Micros
Uniform Analysis
Low Chlorine for Sensitive Crops
Safer to use in row applications
Economical to use on all Crops
Get the Starter Effect by staying 2x2
Excellent for No-till Com
Lebanon Chemical Corporation
Baltimore, MD
800-343-9085
EXTRA
Granulated Starter Fertilizer
For more information on
Lebanon Extra Fertilizers
Alternatives
ing how to use marketing alterna
tives for grain. For more informa
tion, consult the free publication,
“Marketing Resources For Grain
and Forage Producers,” available
from the Lehigh County Coopera
tive Extension, Lehigh County Ag
Center, 4184 Domey Park Rd.,
Allentown. PA 18104-5798, (610)
391-9840.
The implements 1 were used in the
educational process.
A discussion on scholarship and
Cloister buying group was fol
lowed by a report on the ag in the
classroom. It was very interesting
to hear of the responses.
The next monthly will be on
May 9, to include a gardening and
horticultural presentation.