If you grow pulses and special crops you might want to consider buying a book by Brian Clancey.
Clancey runs Stat Publishing, the newsletter and website devoted to coverage of the pulse and special crops markets.
He has been at it for years and knows a lot about the industry.
He has condensed much of that knowledge in a book called The 20-Month Year: The Farmer’s Perspective. It is available from his website at www.statpub.com/books.
In it, Clancey gives insight into the factors that affect pulse and special crop prices, from quality and grades to supply and demand, as well as outside factors such as currency rates and government policies.
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The 20 months referred to in the title alludes to the fact that planning for a crop begins long before the seeding, harvesting and marketing of the grain.
You might start the marketing year in September, but the planning began the December before, so all together the “year” was 20 months.
He devotes a chapter each to lentils, beans, chickpeas, peas, mustard and birdseed.
Each chapter is broken down into the subcategories of each of these crops. For example, lentils are broken down to reds, greens (large, medium and small) other types, U.S. and Australian.
He provides an overview of the countries that are the main markets for these crops and the producing countries that compete with Canada for buyers.
He explains when demand in consuming countries usually peaks and when competitors harvest their crops, adding more product to the market, which depresses prices.
There are a lot of tables in the book showing historical data on world supply and demand, and month-by-month producer deliveries and prices.
In the later two, Clancey colours the months when farmer deliveries are the heaviest and when prices are the strongest.
He calls these heat maps and from them patterns are noticeable about when prices are strongest in a normal year. But they also show when traditional pricing patterns can shift due to weather problems in another producing region or other issues.
Farmers understandably focused on the details of planting, producing and marketing crops might sometimes feel they are lost among the weeds.
This book provides a look at the market from a high elevation, providing a broad view and the chance to see patterns that might not be visible from the ground.
