Water Street Solutions and Farm Progress Companies sponsored the Closing Learning Center Session Saturday at the 2010 Commodity Classic is Anaheim, CA.  The 2-hour panel discussion was a great opportunity for growers to learn things they do have control over on the financial end of their operation.  A summary of the contents of the session is posted today on Farm Progress web sites, and you can read it by clicking here.  In the coming weeks, video from this session will be shared here.

If you're coming to the Commodity Classic, you'll want to make sure to mark this session on your program.  At 1:30 on Saturday, March 6th, there's a panel discussion titled Controlling What You Can Control.  Arlan Suderman from Farm Futures Magazine told me that farmers come out in droves to attend an outlook seminar.  And he knows, because he gives them.  It's fun to talk about the factors impacting the markets.  But after a while it gets frustrating, because what can you really do about those factors?  Nothing.  During this session the focus will be on things where you can impact your profitability, simply by learning and tracking and knowing what numbers to watch and what to do with them once you've found them. 

       Max Armstrong                 Arlan Suderman                 Mike Jacobson                Tim Copeland                       Darren Frye

Max Armstrong (you've heard of him, right?) is hosting the session.  Our experts include:  Arlan Suderman, Market Analyst for Farm Futures Magazine; Mike Jacobson, Chairman, President and CEO of NebraskaLand National Bank; Tim Copeland, VP of Marketing at Great American Insurance and Darren Frye, CEO of Water Street Solutions. 

I'm sure you'll go home from this session energized about what you've learned and how it can help you take the financial reins of your operation.  If you can't be there with us, you'll be able to find information from the session on this web site.

Making your way through agriculture these days is a little like navigating through some town you've never been to before.  If you were suddenly plopped down in the middle of a foreign city, it would be nice to have a good map, or maybe a GPS device that spoke English.  Now that you've found yourself plopped down in the middle of farming, 2010 style, a really good "map" is a financial analysis.  It can help you understand where you are, where you'd like to go, how long that might take, and the best ways of getting there.  Since we're on a travel theme here, I'll let Chip Nellinger and KRVN's Ken Rahjes be your guides for the rest of this discussion.  Click on the link to hear their discussion about the workings of a financial analysis.

Jan 18 2010 Why Do a Financial Analysis - Nellinger.mp3 (1.93 mb)

There are more opportunities for profit if you just look closely.  Chip Nellinger talks with Tom Steever from the Brownfield Network about the places to look, in this report.

As we tie up the loose ends on 2009, it's a good time to evaluate the year and appreciate the lessons we've learned and also find where we can do better next year.  From a farm profit standpoint, there are four common places where farmers are leaving money on the table...four areas where we could be finding more profit.  These include production, crop insurance, marketing and expenses.  Three of the four of these fall right into the core of our business.  Chip Nellinger talks with KRVN's Ken Rahjes about how to get more money out of your operation by looking at these four areas.

Dec 14 2009 More Room for Profitability - Nellinger.mp3 (2.55 mb)

If at the end of the year your long term break evens are too high to find an opportunity in the market for sales, then it's time to go back to the drawing board and look at expenses.  One of the easy places to find some of those spending cuts could be in the area of machinery.  During the Farm Progress Show, our Joe Delheimer talked with Willie Vogt from Farm Progress about this concept.  The video has now been posted, and we'd like to share it with you.  Click here to watch the video.

Even in the current grim economy, a good plan can lead to commodity marketing success, according to Darren Frye.  He talked with Brownfield's Tom Steever about the economy and the opportunities that still exist.  Listen to Tom's report here.

This month Farm Industry News takes a look at the prospect of inflation in our future, and some strategies farmers should consider in preparing for it.  The article by Mark Moore quotes Darren Frye and other economists.  Advice ranges from the safe harbor in land investments to planning ahead on inputs.          

You know you want to make money, but how do you start building a marketing plan that's strategic and will help you get to your financial goals?  Water Street Solutions' CEO Darren Frye says it's a little like taking a trip.  First you start with a map.  That map is your financial analysis.  Here's more from his discussion with KRVN's Ken Rahjes.

Nov 30 2009 Starting a Marketing Plan with a Financial Analysis - Frye.mp3 (1.55 mb)

Grain and livestock marketing can seem a whole lot like gambling if you don't know what you're doing.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  Darren Frye talks to KRVN's Ken Rahjes about how we build marketing plans at Water Street Solutions and what a person needs to learn to manage risk and build profits.

Nov 23 2009 Whats Behind a Marketing Recommendation - Frye.mp3 (1.06 mb)