BOONE, Iowa—Several different agencies and ag related businesses are supporting a Women Marketing Grain Series that will be held in June on the DMACC-Boone Campus.  Boone County Extension and Outreach Program Coordinator, Alex Merk has said the deadline to sign-up will be Friday.

With unpredictable crop prices and tight margins, marketing can make the difference in the profitability of corn and soybean production. How well farmers get paid for a year’s worth of work can be wrapped up in just a few marketing decisions. In this course, women will learn how to manage price risk using tools like forward contracts, futures and options contracts, alternative marketing contracts, and crop insurance. Participants will work in a computer lab to access online decision tools and to develop a marketing plan. Women will learn market strategies and how to stay on track for long term marketing success.

A four-session Women Marketing Grain Series will be offered to assist women in developing plans for marketing old and new crop corn and soybeans. The series will begin on Thursday evening, June 7, and meets over four consecutive Thursday evenings – June 7, 14, 21 and 28, at the DMACC Boone Campus, 1125 Hancock Drive, Boone, IA 50036. Registration is due June 1.

In this course, women will learn how to:

• Recognize crop marketing terms and sources of obtaining current futures and cash market prices
• Understand basis, futures carry, cost of grain ownership, supply/demand fundamentals, and technical chart signals
• Recognize seasonal price trends
• Use crop marketing tools including spot cash sales, forward contracts, hedge-to-arrive contracts, futures hedging and the use of put and call options
• Develop a crop marketing plan

Classes are 6-9 p.m. with a meal served at 5:30 p.m. Registration for this series is $75. To register, visit www.aep.iastate.edu/womeninag/ or contact Alex Merk at (515) 432-3882 or alexmerk@iastate.edu. This program is made possible with support from Farm Credit Services of America, the United States Department of Agriculture, DMACC Boone, Landus Cooperative and Iowa Farm Bureau.

Women Marketing Grain sign-up deadline is Friday, June 1st.

(contributed article and photo, Boone Co Extension)