It’s never been more evident that no two farming operations are the same. In this era of heightened market volatility and uncertainty, the factors affecting the ag industry and the needs of producers vary wildly: cash flow, on-farm expenses, storage constraints, loan repayment terms — the list goes on and on.
As you try and navigate the increasingly complex ag industry, it’s important to seek out personalized information and recommendations that fit your goals so that the needs of your specific farm business continue to be met, while profits (hopefully) increase.
“With ag markets getting more chaotic all the time — especially in light of recent global events — it’s more important than ever to try to wade through all that uncertainty and find ways to make the best grain marketing decisions with the information you have,” says Mark Lepp, CEO of GrainFox, an ag tech company that has been providing market analysis and sales recommendations for 20 years. “It’s even more important that the information you do receive is highly relevant to your business, how you operate, and what kind of legacy you want to leave behind.”
Here’s why personalized grain marketing advice is so vital to your business.
The right information at the right time
First things first: Having the right information available to you is imperative to your success with every sale. There are three key types of building blocks that come together to help you make fully informed sales decisions:
- Credible market analysis and insights: Some self-proclaimed market analysts likely have the best intentions but lack the knowledge and data to back up their claims and predictions. Look for experienced experts (like the GrainFox analytical teams) who can back up their analysis and recommendations with decades of data and experience.
- The information you receive is relevant to you: There is so much information available that it can sometimes be overwhelming and difficult to find exactly what you need. Platforms like GrainFox allow you to customize the market analysis you receive so that you’re only getting info on the markets, crops, and topics that matter to you. “I go on Twitter and I go on Facebook, and I see all sorts of people giving their opinions on the markets, but the voices you really want to listen to are those that are able to distill the absolute ocean of market information into digestible, actionable insights,” says Neil Townsend, Chief Market Analyst, GrainFox | FarmLink.
- The sales recommendations you receive are personalized: General sales recommendations are a good barometer for market conditions now and in the future, you should absolutely consider them when making sales decisions. However, these recommendations don’t account for your specific crop mix, cash flow needs (now, six months from now, a year from now), storage constraints, risk tolerance, and so on. Getting highly personalized sales recommendations can help you make decisions that turn good years into great ones.
Variables that should affect your sales decisions
If we haven’t driven it home enough yet, we’ll say it again: your farm is different from any other farm. The sales recommendations you receive should take into account the makeup of your operation just as much as how much of a certain crop you should sell.
Not only that, but the sales recommendations that benefit you are also those that analyze and consider as much data as possible — both historical and statistical.
GrainFox Smart Advisor, for example, synthesizes historical and current market data, along with your cash flow goals, storage constraints, and risk tolerance, in order to deliver comprehensive, unbiased, deeply personalized sales recommendations.
“This level of personalization is only possible through technology,” says Richard Surendrakumar, Chief Product Officer at GrainFox. “What we’re doing at GrainFox is really revolutionizing market analysis, because it’s distilling all of our knowledge and expertise across our analytical and development teams into actionable recommendations that are very specific to each producer.”
Here’s how it works:
Portfolio mix: Smart Advisor provides sales recommendations based on how the sale of each crop in your portfolio interacts with one another.
Cash flow goals: When you set cash flow goals in Cash Flow Planner, Smart Advisor takes the timing and your portfolio mix into consideration in order to get you the best possible price while helping you make sure you hit your goals when you want to hit them.
Storage constraints: Adding another level of personalization, Smart Advisor considers the interaction between your goals and just how much grain you can store in order to balance getting you the best price and making sure you have room in your bins at the right time.
Risk tolerance: Your risk tolerance is the final piece of the puzzle for complete personalization of your sales recommendations. How much risk you can handle will determine how much or how little selling is recommended, as well as timing based on whether or not you’re willing to risk waiting for higher prices (as an example).
Let’s get personal
Finding good information is one thing, and knowing what to do with it is another. Personalized grain marketing advice and sales recommendations can be the extra help you need to navigate these uncertain times.
To learn more, visit grainfox.ca today, and sign up for a free trial of GrainFox Smart Plan to see what personalized sales recommendations and a full suite of farm wealth solutions can do for your farm business and your legacy.
