The Farmer's Advocate Weekly
Our weekly Farmer's Advocate is a communication method with a purpose of informed decisions and is much more than giving recommendations. A good decision is an informed decision. And good marketing decisions beget more good marketing decisions. Nobody can predict price action. Sales made today often look wrong by tomorrow. History clearly teaches that a plan to "sell at the top" is a plan to fail. However, it is wise to make sales based on good information about cash flow needs, price history, technical indicators, and sound fundamental forecasts. A wise sale is successful business management regardless of tomorrow’s price action . . . and success begets more success.
Successful marketing is not "selling at the top". Successful business managers focus on long-term growth goals by integrating marketing activities with decisions involving capital, labor, and infrastructure resources. Golf coaches tell us, "Harder is not farther." The same is true in marketing—working harder does not necessarily create better results. Successful marketing has more to do with philosophy than it does with skill sets and effort. Some of the best market managers spend the least amount of time doing the job. They have a reasonable plan, they minimize efforts to forecast price, they take what the market gives them, and they focus more energy on the manageable elements of spreads and basis.
"Zenger Comments" are sent via email Monday through Thursday unless Rex is in the country visiting clients. The "comments" discuss that day’s market action and provide current information about outside markets that influence the grain trade. Commentaries complete with instructional charts and graphs are included in the "comments" to inform produces about money flows, weather forecasts, the currency trade, energy markets, basis history, and much more. A detailed discussion and analysis of USDA’s weekly conditions reports and monthly balance sheets is provided in a conversational manner.
The causal format of "the comments" makes it a daily venue for encouraging the disciplined, purposeful, grain marketing philosophy that increases financial success and decreases stressful emotion. Farming is a lifestyle at risk if it is not managed like a business. Daily encouragement to focus on the purposes of family and business growth helps producers deflect the arrows of fear and greed.
