KEMPTVILLE — Most farmers don’t have a good understanding of how to market their crops, said an Alexandria-area farmer, who shared his marketing plan at Eastern Ontario Crop Day in Kemptville Feb. 21.

"Beating the market is not as important as a good long term marketing plan to remain profitable," said Robert Massie. "If you could hit the top of the market every time, you wouldn’t need to grow crops. You could sit in Bermuda with a computer."

Massie recommends forward contracting and buying options (puts and calls) to guarantee profits.

If you’ve never had a marketing plan it’s time to start, he said.

First step? Educate yourself, says Steven Byvelds, of Bycrest Farms, speaking at the same seminar. "I spent $5,000 of my own money trying to get educated in this marketing business. Knowledge is power."

Go to seminars and take courses but don’t expect someone else to tell you when to pull the trigger, he said. "No one is going to tell you when to sell."

Get a broker to buy and sell but limit your use of a broker for advice, he said. "They are in the business of making transactions."

For advice, Byvelds suggests an advisor with unbiased information. To get started you may pay $300 a year, for up to date market information and analysis sent by e-mail and followed up by newsletters. For market information, John Deputter of London, is one option, he told Farmers Forum after the seminar. As for Byvelds, he pays $900 every three months to Chicago-based Strategic Marketing Consultants. "You have to have someone who speaks your language, who thinks they way you do."

If you have no marketing plan for grains, here’s one: Forward contract 50 per cent of your crop, contract another 25 per cent in the summer rally and with 25 per cent, watch the markets and pull the trigger when you see a good price. Some would call this gambling but it’s a calculated risk and you’ve got a lot of time to lock in a price.

Of course, you can get all the information you need on the Internet and elsewhere by yourself. "It’s not rocket science," Byvelds said. "The challenge is the emotion part of it. You need a second person to tell you if it’s the right thing to do."

Never aim to sell at the top price, he said, because no one ever knows what the top price will be. You’re better off being a lazy marketer. "You can sell all of your corn and soybeans now and I bet you can all make money on $5 corn and $13 soybeans."