February 4, 2000

Cotton and beef producers on the Texas High Plains will be the first to attend a day-long Agricultural Marketing Education Seminar put on free-of-charge by the Texas Farm Bureau. The March 7 seminar, to be held from 8:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m. at the Ollie Liner Center in Plainview, is aimed at acquainting producers in the region with alternative ways of marketing their commodities. Organizers of the event are excited because so many of the speakers make their living from agriculture and can share, from their own experiences, marketing strategies that work.

"We’re trying to give producers more options on how to market their commodities, through forward contracting; on cattle, through retained ownership. We want to show them how to formulate cattle and sell them hanging on the rail versus by the pound," said Bryce Myrick, TFB’s director of Agricultural Marketing Education. "In cotton, we want to have cotton buyers on hand to show them different ways to sell cotton through the year, when they pick out a time to sell it. It’s important that producers know about global trade, what countries are importing cotton and which ones are exporting cotton. In the seminar, we intend to show them where the demand and where the supply will be. The important thing is, when we have opportunities, we need to be in a position to take advantage of them."

TFB Director of Research, Education and Policy Development Glen Jones said the good responses and feedback from the short, individual marketing sessions Myrick has held in various counties is what prompted the more comprehensive seminar.

"Bryce has been working with the counties on presenting hour-and-a-half workshops that help producers understand how futures and options work and how they can be a tool for them to use in marketing and pricing the commodities they produce on their farm or ranch. But this seminar is more than just about hedging. It will present other methods to add value to your price," Jones noted.

"A lot of our members hear about these things, but never move to another step in their marketing," Jones continued. "Our goal is to help them do that, to help them get a better price for their commodity and reduce their risk in marketing."