This issue of Moline’s Musings is meant to be a high-level overview of some of the options products available to farmers. Future issues may get more in-depth on certain aspects of option pricing, strategies, and position management, but today’s goal is to build a foundation.… Read More »Moline’s Musings: Options Products
Current Status of Midwestern Farmland Values Farmland values throughout the United States have been on the rise during the past year, piquing the interest of farmers and institutional investors alike. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimates Midwest farmland values are up 23% in the… Read More »Trends in Midwestern Farmland Values
Many of the farmers I speak with have expressed some dissatisfaction with the new crop basis environment for both corn and soybeans. Over the past couple of years, new crop basis values have been much firmer than “normal”. The current new crop basis environment is… Read More »Moline’s Musings: Why is new crop basis weaker than last year?
Welcome to blog number 2 of WTH. In blog number 1 we discussed the IB (Introducing Broker), so we thought the next logical step would be to define the role of the FCM. WHAT IS AN FCM? FCM stands for Futures Commission Merchant. The formal… Read More »WTH? – FCM
The smell of dirt being turned to the surface, the sound of planters sowing seeds, and the promise of new growth to sustain the world: Planting Season 2022 is here. Weather events and supply concerns due to the Russian/Ukrainian conflict have made for an interesting… Read More »2022 Midwest Planting Update
Welcome to Blog number 1 of WTH aka What The Hedge; a series designed to identify, entertain, and explain commonly used grain marketing terms and acronyms. We thought there was no better place to start this blog series than to define an IB or an… Read More »WTH? Introducing Brokers
Post COVID-19, runaway inflation has unsurprisingly caused a shift in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy strategy, now expected to take a more aggressive approach to interest rate hikes. Both supply chain woes and an excess money supply caused inflation to rise 8.5% in March of… Read More »The potential impacts of the Federal Reserve’s Interest Rate Hikes
The History of E15 Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen ethanol in the headlines, thanks mainly to President Biden’s recent trip to Iowa. During the President’s trip to the Hawkeye State, his administration announced that they would be temporarily lifting seasonal restrictions… Read More »E-15: The Good, The Bad, The Exaggerated
Background on Conflict Every production year brings about uncertainty for agricultural producers however, 2022 is off to a never-before-seen start. All eyes have been on Eastern Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th. From its humanitarian concerns to its impact on global commodity markets,… Read More »Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on U.S. Agriculture
Welcome back to another edition of Moline’s Musings! March 15th, marks the sales closing date for revenue protection crop insurance. It has been a couple of weeks, but we officially established the Spring crop insurance price at the end of February. Now that you have… Read More »Moline’s Musings: Crop insurance locked in, now what?