Agricultural Marketing

Contact: Dixie Watts Reaves, Denise Mainville, Mike Roberts

Upcoming Workshops

Dairy Risk Management Workshop series - coordinated by Mike Roberts

Thursdays from 10 a.m. – Noon, October 15, 22 and 29 and November 5, 12 and 19, 2009

The recent dramatic rise and fall in milk and grain prices and the accompanying challenges for producers underscores the need for greater risk management training. This six-part workshop, featuring internationally recognized experts, will help dairy farmers understand futures and options contracts, trading on the Chicago Board of Exchange, forward pricing, margin protection and other risk management strategies to help producers stay profitable. Held via teleconference, the sessions are offered at six sites throughout Virginia, one in Pennsylvania, and one in North Carolina. Each will have an on-site coordinator to ensure a good learning environment. Producers may choose which sessions to attend, but are encouraged to
attend them all. Registration is required for the on-site presentations to get an accurate count for handouts and lunch.

Click here for a brochure of this event

Click here to see the schedule of the workshops

Click here to see a listing of the on-site locations

Click here for the live streaming video and materials for each session

 

Commodity marketing

Futures Market

Mike Roberts' Market Update newsletter

Current Issue
Archive of past issues

Great Pacific Trading Company commodity quotes - free online quotes & charts

Beef Marketing

Dr. Emmit Rawls' Beef Cattle Time (University of Tennessee)

Current newsletter
Archives

General Marketing

Dr. Delton Gerloff's marketing website (University of Tennessee)
Dr. Gerloff's monthly market reports

Educational Webinars on Risk Management (Hedging)

The CME Group is offering a free online series focusing on hedging commodity price risk with options.  The series includes 14 seminars on using grain, oilseed, and livestock options, beginning Thursday, August 7th.  The series begins with six online sessions which have been designed to assist traders of all levels prepare for a the tools and methods used to trade options on CME Group Commodity products.  The second part of the series covers two complete days and presents an in-depth exploration of the tools and methods used to trade Commodity product options. 

For further information, refer to: CME handout (pdf)

Agritourism

Dan Kauffman on Agritourism - Innovations newsletter

Eckert AgriMarketing has created a North American single source agritourism website, http://www.ruralbounty.com/.  The site is available for member listing to promote the rich bounty of our farms, ranches, wineries and farmer's markets. 

Direct Marketing

General Direct Marketing Information

Information for Direct Marketing of Beef

Click here to see draft documents from Ashleigh Waddle's project on Marketing Specialty Beef in Virginia

Click the following links to see draft documents from Zach Waldron's project on Business Planning Guides for Virginia Wine Producers.

Summary of Zach's overall project (pdf)

Business Planning Guide for Virginia Wine Producers (pdf)

Example Business Plan for a Virginia Wine Producer (pdf)

Funding for some of the direct marketing projects was made possible by CSREES and the Southern Region Risk Management Education Center. This material is based upon work supported by USDA/CSREES under Award Number 2004-49200-03126.