Fort Macleod (Rural Roots Canada) –  “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

It may be cliche to say, but when the profit margin of your farm can be controlled by a number of variables that are out of your hands, such as the weather, it’s important to find ways to take back some control.

VP of Business Development for Ag Exchange Mike Witkowicz, who spoke at the RRC Ag Day in Fort Macleod earlier this year, says having a grain marketing plan is one such way you can take back some control on how much you get for your crop.

RELATED: RRC Ag Day

Know what you grow

Witkowicz says farmers need to build a grain marketing plan for each crop before putting it in the ground and continue to ask themselves questions as they watch it grow to make sure they get the most out of it.

Those questions include what they can realistically expect this harvest, what markets they can target as well as a list of buyers they can work with.

“Whether it is your feed prices, your cattle prices, heck your used equipment prices, if you don’t know where you have been, you won’t know where you are going,” Witkowicz said.

He says that is why price discovery is huge in your operations.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail, and you know that you’ve got to have a plan; otherwise, you won’t know your success or failure, or you learn it the hard way at the end of the year after a tough year.”

READ MORE: Taking your destiny out of the hands of Mother Nature

Witkowicz says in good years farmers will make it by, but its only a matter of time before there is a ‘bad year.’

He adds the ‘numbers don’t lie,’ so it’s important to know what the break-even point for each field is and whether they should store the grain or sell it at the current price.

“Whether it is with your cows, with your grain just always bring it back to numbers and having a plan, because the numbers don’t lie.”

Witkowicz says it imperative that farmers execute on the plan they have created and be able to make changes to it as needed.

To hear more from Witkowicz and other crop experts such as Peter Moleski from Cotecna, on how you can get the most out of your crop, tune into his panel discussion and live Q and A at the RRC Virtual Ag Day on Tuesday, July 14.

For more information and to register for the RRC Ag Day sessions, click here.