Here it is: the grand finale of our series on building a grain marketing plan!

This last topic is the most challenging and technical part of the grain marketing plan: producing price targets. That is, trying to figure out what’s a good price and when you should sell.

The futures market is tricky; there are a lot of moving parts. If I could predict the futures market, I’d be living on a private island. Too bad...

However, there’s plenty you can understand about the futures. Let’s get into it.

James and Scott have been talking about building a grain marketing plan these last few weeks. So far, they’ve covered the need to quantify your grain and to handle logistics.

Today, they’re going to talk about all the tools at the disposal of the grain marketer, starting with the most familiar and moving to the less familiar.

If a grain marketing opportunity comes your way, you have to be able to pull the trigger.

That’s the theme of this month’s episodes: how to build a grain marketing plan that works.

This week is logistics, or in other words, figuring out when you can haul grain and what can you store.

Dwight Eisenhower used to say, "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable."

It’s an interesting quotation. He didn’t know where the Germans were going to be at, but he had a plan and modified that plan as information was revealed to him once the battle unfolded.

The same is true of a grain marketing plan. We may have price targets at certain points, but then we may get an extreme rally.

This month, we’re going to focus on the four main parts of building a grain marketing plan. Step one to successfully building a grain marketing plan is to quantify exactly how much grain you need to market.