“My current marketing strategy is very high risk,” confessed HGCA’s Leamington monitor farmer Robert Fox, who is manager of Squab Hall Farm.

“During the last four years we have had two of our best and worst years, so we have been nervous about selling forward. However with our benchmarking activity and use of HGCA’s CropBench+ programme, we now have a good idea of our costs of production at least.”

At the third meeting of HGCA’s Leamington Monitor Farm, on 30 January 2015, arable farmers from Warwickshire and further afield discussed grain marketing strategies, and how they could minimise their risk.

Jack Watts, AHDB/HGCA Lead Analyst said: “There’s no one-size fits all approach to grain marketing – it depends on the individual business. Growers can look at managing their risk by familiarising themselves with the strategic tools and information available.”

Robert added: “We know we need to try and lower our risk, as it is either sold forward very late, or at harvest or beyond. I need to start looking at the markets earlier and then perhaps forward selling some of the crop.”

During the meeting, Jack Watts launched the Monitor Farm’s Grain Challenge.  In this virtual competition groups of growers are tasked with marketing the grain in Robert’s store with each group aiming to make the most profit. The challenge will continue over the next 12 months, giving growers a chance to respond to changes in the market price and to test marketing strategies they may not have used before.

“The Monitor Farm project has expanded our benchmarking group and given me access to a larger set of figures within that group. It’s always really interesting to see how other people are operating differently or more efficiently than yourself, with the aim of helping us reduce our costs of production,” said Robert.

The current situation at Squab Hall Farm represents his usual marketing strategy, with malting barley sold at harvest and OSR moved to store, but feed wheat and barley still to be sold.

Robert is in the process of extending the farm’s grain store so that more can be stored on-farm, rather than making him a forced seller due to space requirements.
Growers present at the meeting shared their opinions on three options for the flooring of a new 12x24m storage unit:

– Lay the floor as the rest of the grain store, including vents and new fans
– DIY concrete drying floor
– Wooden drying floor

Robert said: “The general consensus is, especially with wheat prices where they are at the moment, that a lower-spend option would be a better idea than the higher-spend all-singing, all dancing system.  The store would not be large enough to make any but the first option cost effective.”

This was followed by discussion on third party storage and co-ops, led by Jock Wilmott from Strutt and Parker.

Robert added: “The Monitor Farm project appealed to me, to open up the business and the business decisions that we make. It’s a fantastic way of sharing knowledge with like-minded farmers, and it goes beyond a discussion group. It’ll be really helpful going forward to help me reduce the costs of production at Squab Hall.”

The next meeting is on 26 March 2015 and will focus on inputs and the strategy for addressing the weed burden.

For more information go to hgca.com/leamingtonspa or contact HGCA’s Regional Manager Richard Meredith, on 07717 493015 or west@hgca.ahdb.org.uk.