Too many farmers are "gambling" with their crops and some could face heavy losses this year as low corn and soybean prices show few signs of edging upwards.

The problem is that as many as 50 per cent or more of eastern Ontario farmers have not forward contracted their soybeans and corn due to poor prices. By forward contracting, a farmer pre-sells before harvest at a set price. "Most farmers don’t know when to pull the trigger," said Moose Creek crop farmer Alain Leduc, who is also president of Seaway Grain Processors. "The majority of farmers are not protected. They’re just gamblers."

Some producers might get spitting mad when they hear this but it’s true, Leduc argues. "You can’t grow corn speculating."

A survey of Eastern Ontario elevators reveal that speculating was up this year. Rutters Elevators, at Chesterville, brings in a U.S. broker each year to discuss the advantages of forward contracting but this year contracting is down.

Last year, 75 per cent of Rutters’s customers pre-sold their crop. This year, 50 per cent pre-sold, said grain purchaser Catharine Rutters. They knew the price of corn and soybeans would be low in the fall, she said. "They should have booked."

Farmers could have pre-sold at prices as high as $150/tonne for corn and $340/tonne for soybeans but prices as of October 3 were $100/tonne for corn and $230/tonne for soybeans. Both prices are below cost of production.

At Vandenbosch Elevators, in Chesterville, less than 10 per cent of soybeans or corn was forward contracted, Greg Vandenbosch said. While some farmers tend to lock in one-third to one-quarter of their harvest at one time as a buffer against a future drop in prices, it wasn’t easy to do this year, Vandenbosch conceded: "At these prices it’s pretty hard to lock in."

Leduc said a friend called recently and asked him for his advice on whether or not to sell corn at $104 per tonne. "You take it and swallow the pill," Leduc told him.

Leduc forward contracted 40 per cent (1,800 tonnes) of corn and 80 per cent of his soybeans. Corn future prices might go as high as $110 per tonne, noted Leduc, but by the time that happens you also have to figure in your storage costs.

At Thompson Elevators, in Pontypool, forward contracts are down slightly for soybeans at 40 per cent and down "substantially" for corn at 10 per cent, said branch manager Cory McDonald. With such low prices "they never had an opportunity to market their corn," he said.