I love it when

[timetippingpt]

Ah yes, you are right, a plan is indeed no gaurantee of success....

the opposite is more painful however, having no plan virtually gaurantees failure or at least subpar performance.

lock the bin and throw away the key is about like using a rotary dial phone vs. an iphone. With the multitude of tools you can use to enhance price with a little work merchandising...well...having no plan virtually gaurantees unacceptable performance for our stakeholders. again, jme  (just my experience)

[jennys_mn]

Time - I'm not on here selling anything. I'm glad that you are the wizard that you think you are. But you know what? Very few farmers subscribe to a marketing service. And guess what? Most of the farmers on the farm today have been there for much longer than you're advisory service has been around. How did they EVER survive without your advice, I will never know. But you know what, most of the farmers I know are doing OK. It's a bit late to say now woulda, coulda, shoulda. There's nothing wrong with farmers that have the ability to store the crop, to do so, rather than selling for less than the cost of production. It's an easy alternative, and it works for many of us. And, as much as you hate to hear it, a plan to do nothing, is a plan. And it may not maximize a farmers profit, but, they're also not giving profits to someone that may be selling them snake oil. If what you're selling, over the years, proves to be profitable, farmers will flock to you. But so far, I haven't heard from any other farmer that one marketing service is head and shoulders over another. Personally, I see it as just another way to get money out of a farmers pocket.

Jen

[vrbuck]

Darn skippy ken. Reading all these farmers tread water waiting for Mather nature to bail them out or worse reading those in total denile it comes obvious to me who knows how to sell grain. The once in a lifetime back to back droughts masked those who know nothing about selling grain. It could be a repeat of the 80's where the bin it and store it crowd held 4 years of crops. In that case thre reason a farmer would sell is they need money, they need room for a new crop or the bin smells. Fwi jen GFS is horrible. Waiting for a freeze is a poor marketing plan.

[jennys_mn]

Both of you guys are into the coulda, shoulda, woulda mantra. Get off it. Tell these guys how you're going to make them money now that the market has gone down, not what they shoulda done. Anything you guys start with, "Well, you shoulda" is useless information. And, if things are going to get as bad as your making them sound, then I guess the smartest marketer was me, because I sold the farm while farm prices were still on the rise, and easier to sell. Long term, that will probably prove to be a mistake, but for me, it was the right decision, at the right time. But it's a decision that I made, without the use of someone telling me to sell or not to sell, and giving them a portion of my profits. It is what it is.

Jen

[Hobbyfarmer]

VR, and other sell it before you plant it geniuses it appears we are headed for the third flood in 10 days . Beans gone, damage to corn will not know for a little while. Yea let's have already have had it sold. 

Oh yea I do...to Fed crop. 

Lots of lightning, and rain right now.

[vrbuck]

Just one of ten times a year the crop is shot. My goodness if you had forethought and upped your crop insurance to 80 or 85 percent you will get some serious caching in your pocket. There are maybe two or three weather people I respect enough to listen to. The rest are pretenders.

[jennys_mn]

Time - I have to add one more thing here.  I have never said, "and throw away the key."  I have said lock the bin, when the price of the commodity is low enough that it is no longer profitable to sell it.  I said it last fall when corn went below $4.00.  And I'm certainly saying it now.  But I was also on here earlier this spring saying that it was time to come back from vacation.  And corn rose over a dollar from what it was being bid at last fall. 

I would really appreciate it if you would stop saying what I did not say, or eluding to it.  You have done it several times this summer, and here you are, doing it again and I have to defend myself, again.   Instead of attacking me, how about you give these farmers some of your great advice, for free, on what they should do?  No woulda, coulda, shoulda.  You seen to be the one with the big marketing plan and use the big fancy terms and marketing schemes that many here cannot afford.   And I still don't have a condo in the Grand Caymans, although I suppose I could if I chose to do that.  Several times throughout the summer, farmers have asked about marketing firms.  And the answer always seems to come back the same....they're all about the same.  Sometimes they're right, sometimes wrong, and almost all say, "Don't waste the money."  I think you want to discredit me for saying what I say.  And for free.  Don't like it - don't listen to it.  But don't put words in there that I didn't say.

It seems that SW likes whatever you say, as nearly everything you post is given a KUDO by SW, and usually only SW.  Why is that?  Just something that I noticed tonight, as I was perusing some of your previous posts, trying to garner knowledge along the way.  And I like SW's posts.  They are usually quite good.  But I do have to wonder about that - maybe he gets a free week at the condo by giving a KUDO to everything you post.  If I do that, do I get a free week too?

Jen

[jennys_mn]

How about this one? Since you're so good and so confident about your marketing prowess, how about this - if a farmer does your advice, and loses money, you return the marketing fee, seminar fee, and, just to show how much of a stake holder you really are, if the farmer loses money on your plan, you, being also one of the stakeholders, reimburse the farmer for part of the loses incurred - but I'm sure you do this already as a stakeholder, right? Time?

Jen

[Shaggy98]

"There are maybe two or three weather people I respect enough to listen to. The rest are pretenders." Written by VRBuck

Ironically this is my feelings about marketing advisor services.

[jennys_mn]

Shag - it's going to keep coming.  Every two to three days another system is coming through your way, with varying amounts getting wringed out of the system over you.  Much of the rest of the Midwest, expecially MN, IA, and WI look to continue very wet - to the point of doing damage to fields again trying to get crops harvested.  I may try to do a weather update tomorrow - we'll see how I feel...

Jen