Marketing

A buyer asks which field a delivered lot came from. The ticket has the lot number and the log has the fields, but the answer exists only if both carry the same number from delivery day.

A buyer's discount schedule decides what a load pays after the scale. Part of the cut is water that drying removes anyway, and the rest is the price the schedule sets.

Storage is only the part of waiting that arrives as a bill. Interest on the money you did not collect and the weight lost in the bin add more. Together they set the price to beat: the lowest sale price that leaves you as well off as selling today.

The buyer's bid comes as one price, with a fee built into it. Subtract the futures price, compare what is left with the basis you expect, and lock the volume that covers what falls due before delivery.

The futures quote on your broker's screen is not what your elevator pays. You keep the quote adjusted by the basis at your delivery point, and the basis can still move.

Nobody sells the same load twice on purpose. It happens when the deals sit in four places and nobody adds them up. One sheet, one total and one name at the foot show how many tonnes the farm can still promise.

The break-even price you find published is built from another farm's costs. Write two for your own farm, and you know at once whether an offer covers the cost of growing the crop and whether it also covers the land.

The figure you find online carries another farm's costs, yield and price, and it moves with the date. Yours, written before planting, is the only one that shows at harvest whether the gap came from price, yield or cost.

A public auction report shows what lots sold for. It does not show what your own buyer offered you. Keep that bid in a weekly price record beside the report, with the buyer named and a selling rule written before the first line.

At the end of the year, set what you sold in each portion of the plan beside what the plan said to sell, not beside the best price of the year.