NEWARK, Ohio -- To help agribusinesses and producers make more sound grain marketing decisions and more thorough production, marketing and financial plans, Ohio State University Extension, in conjunction with the OSU-Newark Campus, is offering an 11-week course on agricultural futures and options.
Grain Marketing 625 will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Jan. 5 to March 19 at Ohio State University's Newark campus in Newark. The focus of the course is to integrate marketing alternatives and strategies, costs, cash flows, profits, revenue insurances and farm policy into a marketing financial plan.
Dean Baldwin, former OSU Extension grain marketing specialist, and OSU Extension educator Howard Siegrist will teach the course. Topics being covered include futures and options overview; option's probabilities and price forecasts; making business decisions; managing risks, cash flow and profits; yield and revenue insurance products; ag policy insurance and marketing; cash flow and financial outcomes; cash, hedging and options alternatives; FinPack evaluations; Internet data sources and simulators; and developing a personalized marketing plan for 2009.
"The college-level course is designed to improve the skills and knowledge of farmers, agri-businesses and agricultural educators," said Baldwin. "The course examines price movements using futures and cash prices, historic basis patterns, spreads, futures, options, probabilities, yields, revenues, financial risks and marketing plans."
Upon completion of the course, enrollees will be able to develop storage strategies using basis improvement estimates rather than by speculation; learn how to use basis data to determine the profitability of delayed price and basis contract strategies; learn how to use options to make pre-harvest pricing decisions following both short and normal crop years; and combine ag policy, insurance and pre-harvest pricing strategies to lock in guaranteed price spread to manage price risk.
The cost of the course is $629 for freshmen, sophomores, and those taking the class as a continuing education course; $693 for juniors and seniors; and $990 for graduate students. First-time students must pay a $40 application fee. Also, $75 is charged to cover reading materials, CDs, software programs and class notes. Undergraduates and graduates can earn 4 hours of credit. Credit is not earned when taking as a continuing education course.
For more information on the course, log on to the OSU Extension Licking County Web site at http://licking.osu.edu/agriculture/grain-marketing-625, or contact Dean Baldwin at (740) 747-2450 or baldwin.4@osu.edu, or Howard Siegrist at (740) 670-5315 or siegrist.1@cfaes.osu.edu.