WHAT WE ARE UP TO
It seems that once we get past new year’s, our crop business really starts to get busy with finishing production reports and planning our spring insurance meeting. After we looked at the competing events that we wanted to attend –
the NEATA Conference on February 1st & 2nd and Precision Ag training on February 7th and 8th – we settled on February 14th for the date of our meeting. When Dale heard that we were going to hold the meeting on Valentine’s day, he suggested buying flowers for all the wives.
SPRING INSURANCE MEETING
Markets are always important, but with today’s prices getting a little better price is critical for survival. For this year’s meeting, we are going to focus on markets. We have asked three people with years of market experience to give us their opinion and outlook.
Dale Hebda: PinPoint Solutions
Dale’s been a commodity broker since 1982. He was one of the original proponents of combining crop marketing and crop insurance. Dale helped Stroud Crop Insurance develop the first two marketing endorsements to the standard crop insurance policy. This was the forerunner of today’s revenue crop insurance policies. Dale started a commodity business in 1990 and has shared his opinion since that time. In the 1990’s Dale taught commodity charting classes. His approach is primarily technically based. dale@midplns.com
James Sibbel: Archer Daniels Midlands
James is an integration manager with ADM. He has been working with ADM for 16 years. Jim will discuss the big picture of what the markets revolve around in today’s world. james.sibbel@adm.com
Ben Buckner:
Working for AgResource since 2008, Ben Buckner is a specialist in grain markets. Originally from Tennessee, and the grandson of a dairy farmer, Ben holds a B.A. in economics from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. He began his career in 2005, and his expertise includes wheat and corn supply and demand, international macroeconomic trends, and he has conducted crop tours all over the Midwest for several years. He has presented for farm groups, at Iowa State University and, most recently, at a newly opened port facility in Szczecin, Poland.
Ben will discuss the most PROBABLE scenarios for 2017 including what US and global balance sheets look like using trend yields, trend demand growth, and where acreage will contract and where it will expand. ben@agresource.com
We plan to hold the meeting at K of C Hall in Elgin. As we finalize our plans we will share more details.
by Richard Uhrenholdt
