Contracting ideas.

[Hopperbin]

Something new to think about that us farmers may not be used to. How about offering a bonus based on profit. Like a profit sharing. How about a free trip to Japan???? Not many of us have been there, could increase tourism there. You mention the price is not necessarily an issue so hmmm, could get interesting. Is there a Japan air lines? How about Japan air miles. Toyota Tundra credit, Japan train miles. A lot of Japanese go to the Phillippines just for a game of golf, lets go man.

[Hopperbin]

Ok back to the real world. FarmRanger paying someone to hold canola would be much the same as a cash advance. By giving a cash advance or partial payment on a commodity they will in fact have ownership of that commodity. I believe that is a good idea. Not sure how much Terra is paying if any of the cost of the cash advance program they had. There was a deduction on the price delivered for cost of the cash advance. I believe Japan has low borrowing rates, so maybe they could absorb the cost of the cash advance along with a basis contract program for each month of the year.

[TOM4CWB]

Hopper,

Bunge just did a program on HEAR.

$30/t to hold over an extra year... They themselves paid 75% cash up front... in an interest free advance.

The carry in the futures has paid us on our NEXERA to hold it... but the cash advance under the new program scares us. We are told we can't pay it back cash like previous programs allowed. SO we paid it off. With Fert. so costly... we are stuck way into our credit lines to prebuy.

I guess we should take a close inventory and retake another advance and pay admin fee again... there needs to be a better way. We started paying off the spring advance as required last fall... and finished it off as required by the contract before Jan. 1.

We need to put together a better system... that puts cash repayment back as it was previously before this new program tightened up everything.
Frustrating.