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Implementing Grain Marketing Plans using the Grain Marketing Plan App

Jessica Groskopf, Cory Walters, Kate Brooks, and Robert Tigner

Summary

Today´s farmers manage their operations in a rapidly changing price environment. Although marketing plans are pivotal to an operation’s success and profitability, farmers rarely have written marketing plans. With the continued decline in commodity prices, marketing plans are an even more critical part of farm management and ultimately farm survival.

To assist producers in developing and implementing grain marketing plans, Nebraska Extension has paired traditional grain marketing workshops with technology: the newly released Grain Marketing Plan smartphone application. The Grain Marketing Plan app effectively simplifies the important connection between a written grain marketing plan and grain market information.

The Grain Marketing Plan app is a customizable electronic grain marketing plan with a built in reminder system. Once a farmer has developed a marketing plan, they can input their decisions into their smartphone. When a decision trigger is hit, the farmer will receive a notice encouraging them to take action. The app features a pre-harvest and post-harvest marketing plan and is available for corn, soybean, and winter wheat.

From November 2015 to March 2016, 225 people attended grain marketing workshops held across Nebraska. Of the total participants, 50% plan on using the Grain Marketing Plan app once it becomes available for iPhone and iPad. An additional 32% indicated that they would use the Grain Marketing Plan app if it was available for Android devices.

During this presentation, we will discuss the effectiveness of integrating smartphone technology with producers grain marketing decisions.

Details

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