Many grain marketing companies talk about how well they sell grain for farmers. They tell you the average price sold and how “great” their sell signals are… but how do they determine if they did a good job? Did they compare it to the actual farmer’s business?

Anyone can say they have done a great job without comparing it to something; this can be misleading to farmers and their profitability. So what should farmers do to help their business?

Crop-Side Marketing is the answer. Not only does Crop-Side Marketing help farmers sell grain on a personal level, but we document every single sale. We benchmark our sales to their business. We put ourselves in the farmer’s shoes and show them how to market grain better.  

If another farmer told you, "The average performance difference between cash only marketing programs and futures and options marketing programs is quite small," would you believe them? ​According to The Pricing Performance of Market Advisory Services in Corn and Soybeans Over 1995-2004, its true. In general, the actual benefit of a futures/options plan over a cash only plan is 1¢ per bushel for corn and 7¢ per bushel for soybeans. If you'd like many other brow raising facts like these, today's article is for you. 

In 2007, Mark Davis was told by his bookkeeper that his grain marketing performance far exceeded the average and asked how he produced such results. The answer was constant expense documentation, technical pricing strategies, and following a consistent plan. Realizing that most farmers lack a plan to market cash grain, he developed Crop-Side Marketing in 2009 with his son Clint. The cornerstone of the business was and still is "Treat farming as a business, not just a lifestyle". Our mission is to instill this mindset in farmers, with the goal of farming more profitably.