330 South Wells Street, 6th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606
In this Issue + The
Economic Outlook for 2011, and the Impact on Grains
+ Chinese
Grain Demand, and Supplies in the US and Argentina
+ La
Niña sure to factor into the winter weather forecast
+ The
Commodity Boom
+ Strategies
for old crop/new crop spreads
+ The
Battle for Acres in 2011
GrainProfessional
Featured Merchandiser How did you get started in merchandising and what do you enjoy the most? Long story short, I started working in the cooperative system as a summer job while going to college in 1978. Since then, I have enjoyed the challenges that the market place presents. This job forces you to never stop learning how to better understand the global economy and how it effects not only agricultural commodities, but also food, livestock, and of course energy.
How many bushels of corn, soybeans, and wheat do you handle? With our new cooperative, Viafield, we merchandise 25-30 million bushels of corn and 6-7 million bushels of soybeans.
How many futures contracts do you trade each year? Around 6,000 contracts of corn and 1,400 contracts of soybeans.
How do you distribute your bids to producers? We distribute bids from our website as well as email. 8
Has your job become easier or more difficult with the evolution of electronic trading? Electronic trading has given us more flexibility when purchasing grain after 1:30 pm, because we can cover those sales within 4 hours, so in my opinion it has actually made it easier.
What are the biggest challenges facing grain marketing today?
the-farm and by-passing the elevator. In order to accomplish this, we have to have fast receiving, and abundant storage to be able to capture carry in the market. These issues will continue to escalate over the next decade. That is why elevators continue to unify, or get purchased because of the capital expenditures needed to be competitive. The producer has a similar scenario—you either get larger and more efficient or you are out of the game.
The VOLATILITY in the marketplace! And, how to position yourself.
What is the main trend your see emerging in the grain marketing industry?
More volume and less margin due to (in Iowa) the expansion of industrial use for corn (i.e., ethanol plants every 80 miles). Iowa could become an importer of corn rather than exporter, which was not even on the radar 10 years ago.
How do you see the grain elevator business changing over the next 10 years? It is all about capturing grain at harvest to stop producers from building storage onwww.GrainProfessional.com
Brad Foster Viafield
Grain Business Team Leader www.viafield.com Headquarters: Marble Rock, IA Locations: 18 (Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota) Established: September 2010 (Unification of Farmers Cooperative - Marble Rock, Northeast Iowa Cooperative (Clermont) and Progressive Ag Cooperative (Northwood).