Ontario Grain Farmer - September 2021

BUMPY RIDE FOR CORN PRICES In 2020, the pandemic threw a bit of a spanner in the system, with supply disruptions and a lot of uncertainty around how the economy was going to react. “Generally, in June, it’s about the best time to price new crop grain,” says Philip Shaw, a grain farmer, long-time commodity market commentator, and agricultural economist. “But last year, corn was really low at $3.88 on the futures market.” He said the Chinese incrementally increased their grain purchases over the year, so prices 26 WHEN HIS FAMILY is figuring out how much of their corn crop they are selling and when to sell it, Alain Goubau says their golden rule is to sell in increments. “We lead with having enough to feed the herd,” he says. Generally, they forward sell about 20 to 25 per cent of the crop and let themselves get comfortable with whether they have a good crop, and if all goes well, they may forward sell more and more over the summer. La Gantoise is a 2,000 acre dairy operation with a 1,000 head herd, 600 of which are milkers. It is located in the Ottawa Valley where Goubau, his brother and sister, and their dad put about 35 to 40 per cent of their land into corn and the rest is mostly soybeans, cereals, and replacement forage crop. Since they have no on-farm storage for grain corn, they have to be more careful in their planning and timing of deliveries. “As we roll into harvest period, we’re usually at about two-thirds sold,” he says. At the beginning of July 2021, they were like a lot of other farmers and had more aggressively forward sold. The price of corn HANDLING A YEAR OF MARKET VOLATILITY Lois Harris Marketing

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