GrainsWest Winter 2018

37 / 52

Winter 2018 37
with whomever you choose to work with.” The Cusacks
continue to grow their business and Wade has a 10- to 15-year
exit plan in the works. “Having a marketing adviser, we’ve
found to be useful and affordable,” he said. “As far as we’re
concerned, it’s money well spent.”
MARKETING RESOURCES
In addition to thorough planning, maintaining your own
ongoing market research is important. Expand your
knowledge by shopping your grain around and interacting
with buyers and brokers as well as simply networking with
your peers. Turner recommends young farmers find older
mentors. “2007 and forward has been good to growers,” he
said. “Young entrepreneurs have not had to deal with really
tough times like older growers might have had to in the ’80s.
Ask their opinion and learn from their experiences. There’s no
guarantee things won’t ever be challenging again.”
Additionally, a number of easily accessible marketing
information resources are available to farmers. For example,
the Alberta Wheat Commission’s Price & Data Quotes, or
PDQ, is a tool that can aid informed decision-making and
allow the user to track prices and basis levels. “It was created
to be a resource or sounding board, an information tool, for
growers,” explained Alberta Wheat Commission business
development and markets manager Geoff Backman. “Grain
companies supply pricing information to PDQ in a confidential
manner, and an average of prices is published on .
It is a platform to provide average prices and basis values
for wheat, canola and yellow peas. The goal is to add
transparency and accessibility as well as convenience for
farmers looking for a reliable source of grain pricing data.
“Farmers like that PDQ is a non-industry source of basic
information,” said Backman. “Even if it’s just used as a price
comparison or price verification tool, then it’s providing value
to growers.”
Similarly, the Cusacks place a great deal of weight on the
non-biased marketing information and advice they get from
their adviser. Though they warn that they’ve found certain
market advisers to be biased toward achieving outcomes
more profitable for themselves than for the customer.
Subscribing to online grain marketing publications is
universally recommended. These can include free services
such as FarmLead’s Breakfast Brief as well as paid information
subscriptions such as FarmLink Marketing Solutions. Visit
or for raw commodity prices.
As well, plugging into social media will keep you informed on
global market activity. On Twitter, follow marketing advisers as
well as weather and agronomic experts.
However you choose to do it, it’s important to ensure you
approach your marketing strategy with the same discipline
and rigour as you do the agronomic side of your business. Do
it right, and you will set yourself and your farm operation up for
long-term success.