Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Nathan Kuhn joins me on episode 101 of the what the Futures podcast. We talk crop diversity, we talk about some of the learnings from 2025 and set the stage a little bit for next year. I'm down in Raleigh, North Carolina, hanging out with UPL down at the research center there. The Research Triangle they call it. Let's get into it. Episode 101 of the what the Futures podcast happening right now.
Hey, folks, welcome to the what the.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Futures podcast, your quick guide to better farming decisions.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Alrighty, folks. Of course, each and every episode is recorded in the UPL studio. Now you'll see behind me, it doesn't look like much of a UPL studio. I am in Raleigh, North Carolina, where UPL has the their research center there. And I'm just actually hanging out in the hotel lobby. So if we, we scan, they've got this little library area and I thought, you know, one of goals was to record in different spaces. And here we are. Why not? Also big thanks to 764 Customs, that's Steph Shaw. I've got some new hats. It says 100 episodes on the side and you can get these at the Crop Marketing Made Cool conference. Among some of the other great hats that we, that we have now. I want to mention, of course, we do have our, our auction online auction happening right now. All proceeds, all money, every bid that comes in, all those dollars collected go to the ccaw. That's the Canadian center for Agricultural well Being. And we're raising money, raising money for the Farm Crisis Helpline, that mental health hotline, very, very important resource for Canadian farmers. And UPL stepped up with a big donation for the auction. You can check it out at Ryandnee CA 200 acres of battalion. Last I checked, leading bid was around 2k for something that retails close to $7,000. It's not just that, folks. There's other great buys on there as well. Go check it out. Ryand ca. But of course, big thanks to UPL for stepping up with that donation. All right, positive moments for this week. You know, on the home front we've got potty training, you know, with Finley is going really, really well here. The last week just hit a bit of a milestone here, making progress, doing really well. So that that's been a positive moment for us. Also, I got to meet Veronica from Pod Sound School. That's my second positive moment for the week. You know, Veronica and her team have been editing this the show for almost a, well, almost a year and a half now. I Guess and first time that we get to meet in person. So that's always great. My third one is, you know, just being on this trip with these great group of farmers and, and just getting a chance to do a little bit.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Of travel with the podcast.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: That's always fun for sure. So Nathan and I, we're going to get to his segment here in just a moment.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: But we, we went over some crop.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Diversity, some crop mix, and you know, one of the themes for me for this year just it comes around how, how tight or how negative some of the margins are on these crops, but how I expect to see a lot of diversity because there's no real silver bullet out there. All right, so for this, this week I've been doing some consulting with work, meeting with farms. We do this crop marketing calculator and actually we have a, like a stripped down version on, on the website that you can go and check out. We're going to try to enhance this over the next, you know, the next few versions. But it, it's. The crop marketing calculator is just something that helps with the conversation, helps frame, you know, crop potential that, that looks promising or more promising, you know, depending on where it ranks. But so I thought this week was interesting because I was sitting down with the farmer and we were going over the crop ranking calculator. And also what came into the conversation was the power of John Deere Operations Center. And so on this farm, you know, northern Alberta, like north Edmonton farm, you know, north of Edmonton, we had Canola ranked as the number one crop for their farm.
And, you know, the farmer was quick to reference some research or not some research, some results from John Deere operations Center. And he said, you know what, Ryan? Canola is ranked number one when it comes to price and yield, you know, minus some of my costs, like it comes as number one. But in my analysis with John Deere Operations Center, I'm also noticing or recognizing that my fuel consumption is quite a bit lower on my Canola acres. I have a higher rate of efficiency and I'm getting more done. And so he said, you know, not only, you know, on this calculator does it look like a number one crop. When I start looking at some of the fuel savings and some of the efficiencies, it actually, you know, even ranks a little bit higher. You know, when I look at some of this crop potential, sometimes I struggle with just pulling up some of the negative factors. For example, like, you know, friends don't let friends grow flax. Flax can be a challenging crop to harvest at times. And, you know, management can be a little bit challenging for some growers. Don't get me wrong, there's million acres of flax planted, but, you know, I think about oats, you know, lots of bushels, you know, lots of storage. You know, I kind of struggle with, with just looking at some of the other tangible, some of the other factors that, that impact acres or, you know, even margins. But seeding plans, I'm quick to look at the numbers.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: But there's other things involved, so I'm.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Going to try to do a little.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Bit better job of covering that in, in the future. All right, now, if you want to check out that crop ranking calculator, it is online. We're going to jazz it up one day, but there is a version there for you to, to check out. All right? Okay. Now before we get to Nathan, what's on my mind here for crop marketing for this week? Talked a little bit about diversity, crop mix. I just want to say that it's, it's a challenge. I think it's a chall to find that silver bullet crop in, in 2026. So when it comes to seeding plans, I've had some interesting conversations over the last last week or so. It's hard to change out of your crop rotation, especially in any large way, for the most part. But I'm just noticing that, you know, farms are going to kind of spray the field here a little bit, kind of, you know, put in their rotation, maybe they'll try something new and plus the rotation and just kind of see what sticks at the end of the day. Because it is very challenging to predict and there's no real silver bullet like when crop rankings when, when the number three to number eight crop all kind of come close. From a margin perspective, it just shows you how tight things are between crops and how, you know, we maybe don't have a handle on exactly what's going to stand out from a margin perspective. All right, so I just want to talk about that. I want to say there's a lot of diversity out there for 2026. And, you know, I don't know if any crop really stands out on getting hammered for acres. I think Canola will be to the max. But a lot of diversity is the first thing I want to mention this week. The second thing I know, markets were down here today. I'm recording Thursday for the most part. Canola up a little bit. Cereals down. The markets have rallied though.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: And the market's rallying. You know, wheat Futures climbing. Canola futures climbing here a little bit. Soybeans climbing. You know, the barley feed, barley prices recovering a little bit. What I want to say is that this is just, this is normal activity, you know, normal stuff. This is a rally that you, you don't want to sleep on. I know it's not, it's not a fun rally, it's not a weather rally, a spring rally, but it's one that you don't want to sleep on. Okay. Because if you, if you have a moment, go take a look at especially the wheat charts. Kansas wheat, Minneapolis week. Go take a look at some of those charts and look at like years of decent crop size. Like, I think maybe 16 was one of those years. Maybe 19. 20. 19 was one of those years. 2013 certainly was one of those years. And you'll just notice that the wheat market, Minneapolis, spring wheat specifically, maybe Casey is in there as well. But it makes this little high in like November, October, November, we'll say that. And then. And then suffers from a decline, suffers another pullback. I'm not saying that, you know, this year's the same or, or, you know, can't be different. It certainly can. But this is a time where you get this post harvest recovery, this post harvest rally, and I just want to make sure that you don't sleep on it. Even go and look at the canola char and like, what you'll find in the canola chart on some of these years is just that, more of a sideways market, but maybe sideways to lower. If you want to look at, look at it as a whole. And so just something, you know, as cash flow becomes more important for you for your farm in the months of January, February, March, like, this is the time, my opinion, this is the time to do some acting, to do some selling. All right? So you'll see in eating your veggies, I've got a few things I want you to work on, to think about things. And I just don't sleep on, on these markets right now.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: All right.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: I think there's a chance to get something done here before, before cash flow needs get a little bit tighter. Now also add to this is kind of my third point here. If somebody wants it, if somebody wants your wheat or wants your canola, you know, I do think you should be selling it.
Now here's a couple things that are a little bit negative in some sense. But you know, we've gotten to the middle part of November, even the later part of November, and winter's been, Fall's been really nice. But you got. You got a harsh winter potentially ahead of us. You know, I. Who knows? It looks like it could be setting up to be a harsh winter, and then that puts a little strain on logistics. And any strain on logistics just ends up costing you money. All right, cash flow needs everybody. I talk to you right now. Yeah, cash might be fine right at this moment, but cash flow needs get greater. All right, and so when the elevator, if they're not phoning for it, if they're not calling for it, then what happens when you need to generate the cash? You need to sell this thing because you need to generate the money. But there's not as many companies that want to buy it or have the ability to buy it or have the excitement of needing to fill cars, that. That becomes a painful situation. And that can get amplified a little bit if more people need to generate cash and there's less of that demand out there.
And don't get me wrong, demand is very good right now for wheat. Demand is strong. Demand has been strong.
Had been strong for yellow peas and feed barley.
But what happens if there's a slight pause? What happens if, you know, even get into that end of the year, Christmas time, where it gets kind of dark and not a lot of fun, and yet the bills are coming due?
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: What happens if that demand takes a slight pause?
[00:11:50] Speaker B: I'm not trying.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: It's not my role here to feed you with fear and concern or anything like that. That's not what I'm here for. But I'm just saying if you need to generate cash, somebody wants to buy it. Winter is coming. We've had a rally.
Why wouldn't you consider it? Why wouldn't you look a little harder at it right now? All right, okay. Let's. Let's leave it at that. I want to mention here, Brett Young again, new partner on the what the Futures podcast. One thing I did right away is I went to their website. So Bret Young, ca. But I signed up for their. Their email blasts, I signed up for their communication, and that's where I Learned about these three $5,000 travel vouchers.
That's where you get an update on some of the deadlines going on. So, of course, that 50 a bag rebate on canola seed, that's where you find things like that. It just keeps you in the loop. It keeps you in the know from a. A company that's got a lot of great things to offer right now. So head over to their website, Brett Young, ca And you can find a spot where you can join their, their email, blast their communications.
And yeah, if you are, you know, in a position where you get an email to save money or a chance to win a travel voucher, then, yeah, that's money in the bank for you. All right. Okay, let's get into the interview now with Nathan Kuhn again coming off the Saskatchewan Rough Rider. Great cup victory.
Let's have a chat and see how Nathan's doing.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: So, Nathan, thanks for coming on the show here. Mid November.
I'm going to see you in Moose Jaw in, in a couple weeks. I'm actually, I'm going on vacation with your brother on Wednesday.
Believe it or not. Of all things, me and Brian are going on vacation together.
[00:13:49] Speaker C: Actually, that's actually funny. I didn't actually know that you were headed down to North Carolina as well. That's. Brian's pretty excited, that's for sure.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Well, I sent him a message and I said, I don't know how many Speedos you're packing, Brian, but I'm going to bring two. And I'm still waiting for his response.
[00:14:07] Speaker C: But, yeah, it's going to be pictures. You shouldn't open that can of worms. You're going to see way more man than you want to.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to heading down there with UPL and honestly, it was a bit of a surprise invite for me as well.
I, you know, it heard they were doing something they normally do and then I got the, I got the nod to think about it. And there we go. I'll be down in Raleigh, North Carolina for a couple days with UPL and about 20 growers. Brian one of those growers. So I don't know. The agenda looks nice and I saw whiskey on it a couple of times. So, yeah, I don't think we'll go wrong.
[00:14:51] Speaker C: Yeah, he told me all about your itinerary and the only thing that I remembered is that there is a whiskey tour. And it sounds. Sounds like I'm missing a good time, but somebody's got to keep the wheels turning here, so.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: You bet.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: So let's segue to the farm. Now, how you know, it doesn't feel like winter time yet. It's a little cold out there tonight, but lots of fall work still happening across the prairies. But how did 2025 go for you guys? How did the crops end up?
[00:15:20] Speaker C: You know, 2025 was. It was a phenomenal year. Phenomenal growing season, phenomenal yields, and then a phenomenal harvest on top of it, which you don't usually get the trifecta I think we were 42 days straight, and there was only one day where I think we pulled off 10 acres just due to heavy fog. We kind of spent the whole day waiting to get going. So there was no rain breaks, no quality concerns. It was just hammer down and go. And, I mean, everything ran really well out here. There's actually a. There's a lot of fires. I think that was actually across western Canada. There's a lot of that canola dander and. And mold that was causing problems. We dodged those, which is always nice. But we did have neighbors lost some combines, and. And for us, it just went really well. And I mean, with.
As you've been seeing, with these slightly depressed prices, the yields were very welcome on our farm.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Anyway, that's nice to see, because I did fess up on the show here that I jinxed you guys in 2024 when I drove by and those crops were looking so good in mid July, I sent you the wrong text message about buying grain bags, so I made sure not to do it this year. And so I played my part, Nathan. That's all I could say. I played my part, I think.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: Well, I think I got to say thank you because, I mean, I still had those grain bags you told me to buy the last time they were in the shop, so I didn't. Didn't have to go buy a bunch more.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah, you probably got them for cheaper, too, so, you know, saved money.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Made sense.
[00:16:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:16:54] Speaker C: It was a good business decision.
So.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: So smooth harvest, smooth year. Any. Any big.
I guess, any big learnings this year? Anything that you guys maybe did a little differently that you're. You're going to continue. You're going to continue that in 2026 or. Or something where you just shook your head and said, yeah, we're not doing that again.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: Well, actually, we're.
We're a real meat and potatoes kind of farm. I mean, in 2024, our rotation consisted of hard red spring wheat and canola, and that was it.
And so this year, we actually ventured into a lot of specialty crops that we've necessarily haven't touched.
We had a little bit of everything. We had red lentils, we had malt barley, we had feed barley, we had oats, we had mustard. So there was plenty of learnings.
One thing I definitely learned that just because a mustard crop looks good doesn't mean that it is.
Okay, so jury's still out whether we'll be ever growing that again, but it was a. A fun thing to experiment with, and I Know the lentil growers, anybody that's already grown them, they know this. But until you've done was just that phenomena of combining lentils and you're down in a low spot where it's nice and thick and, and beautiful and you watch that yield monitor just fall off a cliff and you go up on the hilltop and there's nothing there and the yield monitors going berserk. It's just very. It's counterintuitive to do any cereals, right? It was, yeah, they went well. They combined well. Which again, that's always a concern with any of the pulses. And the piece too. The crops stood well. It was. Yeah. The biggest learnings was that we can do specialty crops within reason.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: The marketing's obviously a little bit differently and without the paper side of it to backstop them, I'm learning, you know, a few different ways to market them and cash flow things. So that's exciting.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: So when it comes to the mustard, was it, was it quality at the end of the day? Because I was just. Of course, I knew we were going to chat, so I was brushing up on some mustard information just in case you asked me a hard question. But was it quality or was it just yield? Wasn't. Wasn't there either.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: Well, the yield was poor or disappointing. I mean, we kind of had it in our heads that it was going to do 25 or 30 and it actually ended up only doing 12. Okay. And then when we went to get it graded, they called it a number four because it was dirty.
So we said, well, we'll clean it. And they're like, oh, you can't do that. I was like, well, pretty sure I can.
So then we cleaned it and then we resubmitted it. Now it's a number one and that's just.
It's obviously a fickle market that there's not huge appetite for the product. So you got to be a little bit more on the ball with your quality and sample and yeah, all learnings.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Well, I did read that that the grading grades have been an issue for mustard this year and about 10% less grading, a number one, as per usual in a. Most of that going into the number four category. So you definitely weren't alone on. On that one. Any crops, any new crops you did this year that you're. You're going to expand those acres next year. You don't have to tell the listeners all of your secret sauce recipe, but any expansion going on in some of.
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Those, there will be expansion. But I mean, I think the biggest thing is we're trying to pencil in wheat for next year, and it's.
It's very difficult to make money on wheat. So by force of necessity, those specialty crops are the ones that are going to grow.
We also understand there's a limitation to, you know, logistically how many lentils we want to put in. And we played the oat game. And when, you know, you're seeing those bushels rolling in for our farm in particular, there's a logistics issue as far as moving the product. So we want to keep those acres manageable. But, yeah, you're going to see these specialty crops continue on our farm until that wheat gets back into a more profitable level for us.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: I was chatting. I got two points to this. I was chatting with a seed grower earlier today. I'm doing a little presentation down at Enchant Alberta with stamp seeds in a couple weeks. And Greg was just mentioning that bookings for pulses were quite strong, which kind of surprised me a little bit. Not in the sense that, you know, that those acres shouldn't be getting booked right now, but I know yellow pea specifically. I thought that was kind of a. Interesting one to hear that those acres or bookings at least were hanging in with a seed grower when, you know, the yellow pea market is not doing anything exciting.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: So, yeah, on that yellow P thing, and, I mean, my dad is setting his ways kind of guy, and he. He went ahead with the yellow peas this year, and I was sitting there saying, I don't know, I don't know.
And he pulled off phenomenal yields, and he's increasing acreage again next year. And I mean, he. He believes there's going to be some, you know, some deals happen and some markets open up, and he believes that they're going to be profitable for him. So we are growing them on our farm, and we are expanding the acres. I'm not brave enough to do it, but there's guys that are doing it.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Well, you know, the argument is out there that it's, you know, one headline away from.
From not blowing up, but one headline away from a very positive increase in price. But, you know, I think we have to remember that we're going to carry over a lot of yellow peas next year. So, yeah, hopefully that headline, when it comes, will be positive and will wake us out of this market that we're in. But I don't know if I can afford to do it. I don't know if I could afford to. To pencil that acre in right now on, at least on our Farm. But man, we'll see. All right, Nathan, you. So you're going to be speaking in, in Moose at the, at the conference, which we're looking forward to. You're returning speaker back by popular demand.
Everyone was had a lot of good words to say about you in, in the survey cards that we sent out after the conference and glad to have you back. Going up twice this time around. So not only are you going back on stage, but we're going to run you up there a couple of times.
But when it comes to crop market here in 2025, is there any, anything that kind of stands out for you from maybe a victory side, something, some decision you're proud of? On the marketing side, the one that.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: Would stand out the most is, is the early canola sales that we were booking. They weren't big ones. We were kind of ladder stepping in, you know, after that May, June time frame when we had good germination. And it's, it's a great feeling when an elevator phone says, oh, hey, you know, you got, you got two loads of canola to bring in here. And you're like, oh, I'll have to check my book. They're like, you might want to get those in. You know, like they're, they're 15 bucks and they're like, oh, I definitely remember those. Yeah, yeah, I got those for sure.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: 20 loads you said, right? 20, perfect.
[00:24:19] Speaker C: Yeah, let's add a zero. So those, those were a win. The wheat, and I mean you and I have discussed this too. The wheat, we just never got those big forward sales because there really wasn't a pricing opportunity that looked attractive enough.
So while it's not my doing at all, I'm sure grateful for the really good basis levels that we have.
And so the wheat has, has been a win, not by my doing or anything that I did exceptionally smart.
And we did have some good feed barley sales on as well. I mean that market hasn't moved a ton, but they were obviously much higher than, than the market was. So those ones, those big contracts felt good to move in either right after the combine or shortly after. So there's no, no dealing with storage on that stuff for us.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think going back to your comment on wheat for a second, you know, the, the rally that we had in May and in June, you know, if we, if we would have had the posted basis levels we have today, you know, we would have been all over that. Right. And so the guys that did those futures first contracts and had a little bit of confidence in, in Basis moves and I was not one of them. You know, how do you, how do you harvest?
You know, I know they're saying the second largest wheat crop in our history, but I believe we may be our, our biggest wheat crop of, in Canada. We'll see here in the next few weeks. But you know, it's hard to get bullish basis in that environment. But here we are, exports are just humming along.
Farmers are doing all they can not to sell and basis, you know, keeps trying to buy some of the business, trying to fill these cars with this strong, strong export demand. So, yeah, it's nice to see and you know, when I look at that carry in the wheat market into the fall of next year, I start to get a little bit hopeful here on some decent wheat pricing. But we'll see, we'll see over the next months.
So, Nathan, I want to ask a bit of a sensitive question here, but, you know, you're in contact, you have a futures broker that you're working with, you know, each and every, every week.
How's that gone in 2025? Have you, has there been more communication and more trading going on in, in your opinion, or is it kind of backed off in your scenario this year compared to some past years?
[00:26:49] Speaker C: On the purely hedge side, I would say it's backed off just kind of being the nature of the year and the smaller moves that didn't, didn't present like a big opportunity to do something. I like protecting my forward sales with, you know, with calls and futures and things like that. So that's a, that's a very atypical thing for me to do. So it's, it's been what, yeah, I'll call it a little less than normal. But on the spec side, there's been so much going on in the background and I mean the, the fact is just with Trump leading the U.S. i mean he, he swings the market with tweets and ideas and things that come out of his mouth. So it presents opportunities and it, it wrecks things at times too. But the speculative side of, of the futures trading has been a lot of fun this year. I maybe wish I could have done a little bit better on this oilseed market the last couple weeks, but, but yeah, nobody's ever sad to see it go up.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: No, no.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: For some reason I've always got something.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: To sell, so it's good, good when it goes up for sure. Going back to some of the other markets, I, you know, I, I rely on other people for, for cattle information. Ryan Copperthorn Cows and Control, you know, he's, he's my guy when it comes to cattle. And chatting with one of my clients a couple weeks ago now and just we had never hedged cattle before. You know, they, they have, you know, 400, 400 head, great cattle farm. And we had bought insurance before and stuff like that, but never hedged. And we just got just that dumb luck. Nathan, when you're like, okay, I'm going to hedge, I'm going to sell some futures here, I'm going to protect. And then Trump's tweets start coming out after that. And so of course, you know, we're not, this isn't go out and buy a brand new four wheel drive type money at this point or anything like that yet, but we have, you know, preserved a margin for, for the Cavs and, and sometimes a little dumb luck never hurts. We just happened to pull the trigger and got a couple of contracts sold and then here we are.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: So.
[00:29:00] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and actually, it's funny that you mentioned, I got a, I got a pretty big herd of cattle here at the acreage.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: I saw that in the family, in the family photos. I saw.
[00:29:12] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, the herd's so big they fit in the family photos. And I happened to sell my four calves, my four steers, the sale right before everything started tumbling. So I felt like I had my crystal ball out that day too.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: There you go. There you go. Good stuff.
All right, Nathan, so you're teaming up with RBC at the Crop Marketing Made Cool conference here in Moosejaw. What do you guys hope to accomplish when you get in front of that group of farmers? What's, what's on your mind for a topic?
[00:29:43] Speaker C: We're building this presentation actively as we speak, and it's been so interesting to actually take a look, you know, to, to step back and take a look at what we do and why we do it. And so I think more than anything, what we really want to show is how you can use these futures and your broker specifically to get your financial goals lined up and to achieve them, to make sure, you know, that things like your cash flow needs are met, but you maybe still leave yourself in the market or you know, the ability to maybe move things for logistical purposes and still leave yourself that upside or, or downside protection or, or however you do it. So it's been really neat to actually just build the presentation from an outsider's perspective on how we can benefit a farmer and how it might be able to work for you and how you can just basically take the stress Away from, from marketing. I mean, prior to doing, you know, the brokerage account, every sale just had me so worked up, you know, are you making the right decision? Are you, are you selling too early? Should I have sold later? And just if, if you're one of those people that's constantly worried about that sale, like there's, there's tools that you can use to, to take that away and you're not worried about it anymore. So I think more than anything, highlighting, you know, what you can do and how you can work with a broker to get your needs met on your farm, whatever those needs may be.
And yeah, developing that relationship and finding somebody that, that works well with you.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's important. Yeah. Finding that, that teammate out there, that, that can help, you know, move, move you in a positive direction, give you the confidence in some of those decisions. So that's great stuff. Nathan, I really appreciate you sharing that and look forward to your presentation here down in Moose in just a few short weeks.
You know, I.
This isn't to kick sand at anybody or, or to, you know, everyone. You might have legitimate concerns about hedging accounts and teaming up with a broker, but honestly, honestly, it, you know, crop marketing can be 365. You know, the market closes for just a few days out of the year. It doesn't have to be stressful, though. You don't have to be working all the time trying to, you know, make decisions every single day. But at key moments, when you need to move something, you need some cash, you need. You want to hedge yourself, you want to protect your bottom line.
Like there's. There's nothing easier and stress free than having that partnership. So. Good stuff, buddy. Appreciate you coming on the show this week. Anything, Anything else you want to talk about? I got some time. I know I'm keeping you over time, but anything else you want to talk about this week?
[00:32:34] Speaker C: Just how excited I am for this conference. I mean, last year was just. It just blew me away and it blew everybody away. Going to.
We're farmers. We get invited to all these different conferences and events and this and that, but I've never been to one where everybody is so engaged and wants to be there. There's. There was no, there's no floaters in this crowd. You get asked. When you're up on stage, you get asked the tough questions. It's just a buzz. I mean, when, when the speakers end, the room talks. Everybody's asking questions and talking and it was just, it was so much fun last year. And I mean I think sometimes for anybody that doesn't know me, they see me up on stage and think I maybe have all the answers or I know what I'm talking about. And I mean I learned a pile last year and I'm looking at learning even more this year. And it's just an excellent networking opportunity and the things that you learn and the people that you see and I mean even some of the presenters from last year, you get to, you pick up all kinds of stuff left, right and center. I mean it's, it's just a blast. And I'm, I'm really looking forward to it and it, it's coming fast now.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Oh yeah, you tell me, man. I'm, I'm in the background here. Just this.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Well, not scrambling.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yvonne is keeping me, keeping me moving along. But. Yeah, well, I appreciate those, those kind words. And uh, you know, last year in Drumheller when, when the doors opened and people started coming in, I was actually, I was kind of taken aback by the, by the energy, by how, how positive and how exciting it was right off the get go. I wasn't anticipating that and it kind of had me spinning for, for that first night. So I got into the groove after that. But yeah, Moose Jaw, like the downtown core has been just incredible, incredible to, to partner with, you know, the, the hotel. Everything's been first class working with the hotel.
We're going over to the Crush can for a couple of events in the evenings and we've got the tunnel tours lined up. And honestly like you're, and this isn't a poke fun at anybody else out there, but you know, people were phoning.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: Phoning us, phoning me, phoning Yvonne, saying.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Hey, we, we hear that you're bringing some farmers into town here for this conference. Like how can we a part, how can we be a part of it and just really, really cool. We didn't really experience that last year, so again, maybe with momentum here, we'll experience that moving forward. So looking forward to it. We've got a great lineup of keynotes, five great keynotes. We've got, well, basically six breakout sessions as well, a couple of panels and it's gonna be a blast. So we're doing all the fine details here. Ticket packages. Actually Nathan, tickets got mailed out this week. We're keeping with, with a gangster, you know, Al Capone type theme. We did send everybody a couple of cards. We're gonna play some poker as a group when we get down to Moose Jaw. So that's one of the, the games we have Lined up. So let me know if you actually.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: Get them this year because remember last year I think I only got mine in January due to the postal strike.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: You know, in October I, I was looking at Amanda and Yvonne saying, are we going to have to hand deliver all these things this year?
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Because.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: And last year we had the kind of the glitter bomb in there. And yeah, people were messaging me like weeks after saying my kids loved it, you know, with the glitter bomb and stuff like that, my wife hates you, so on and so forth. But glitter for everyone. So yeah, yeah, so let me know. Send me a picture. And if you get, if you get dealt snake eyes or something like that, you gotta let me know. All right. I might have to come in with you on, on the bet, so.
[00:36:28] Speaker C: Yeah, sounds good.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: All right, man, we'll see you in a couple weeks.
[00:36:34] Speaker C: All right, take care.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: All right. Always great to have Nathan on the show.
A conference favorite.
Nathan does a heck of a job job when he's on stage and so looking forward to having him in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, December 9th to 11th. You know, the crop marketing made cool conference. You can still get tickets.
They're available. Thank you to everybody that's committed. So far, ticket packages have hit the mail. We're a little bit old school. We like to mail out, mail everything out and, and have you experienced kind of receiving your tickets to the conference and, and all that stuff? So a lot of fun.
Big thanks to Amanda for getting those in the mail this week. But if you want to join us, by all means. This is a conference about education and learning and getting, getting better at crop marketing, getting better at farm business decisions and having that pay dividends. Having that pay dividends in the future. Yeah. If you need any more details, you can email me. Ryanatthefuturespodcast.ca.
happy to answer them. And still tickets available for you@ryan ca. That's where you can apply. Getting towards the end here of this week's episode, I do have eating your veggies here. So three things. Number one, cash flow planning into spring.
Talked about it on the show already. I cannot stress this enough. I was chatting with a few farm here the other day and he said, ryan, I need $1 million by the end of January.
And I said, fantastic. You should do some selling. You should sell some crop.
So cash flow planning, it's when the inputs are due, guys. It's tough so you gotta get on it.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: All right.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Crop marketing plan. You know, these are kind of broad things. Cash flow is kind of specific. But number two, crop marketing, like I'm not saying you have time now because it's been busy, but to take a little bit of time. I think you should do this every week at a minimum, but to brush off the crop marketing plan. And maybe it's, maybe it starts with cash flow numbers, crunching those numbers, then it turns into, you know, looking at what crop to sell, why, starting to set some targets, and then hopefully it leaks into a little bit of, of 2026. You know, there are opportunities out there. Maybe you don't like the canola basis, but you recognize the rally and you want to do a futures first contract. I chatting with a farm the other day where, you know, we're doing the Math to, for $16 canola this summer in, in central Alberta, you know, call it probably 15 and a half in central Saskatchewan. Like we were going over scenarios where that was possible. We were looking at carrying the wheat market and basically saying, hey, you know, if the demand stays, you know, lock in this futures and here's a path to something around the eight dollar level, right? So take a look at that carry and then take a look at that for the fall of 2026 while you're at it. All right, Take a peek over there, see what's going on in the fall of 2026. Don't sleep on it. If you have a chance to lock in some profit, some opportunity here to pay the bills and more, you got to take a hard look at that for the fall of 2026.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: All right?
[00:39:58] Speaker A: And the last one, and I think many of you do this already, but just setting up a meeting with your, your partners, your lenders, whoever you feel, you know, deserves a spot at your boardroom table, at your kitchen table table, where you get together and just recap the year, recap the strengths, recap the weaknesses, talk about your plan for the next year, talk about what you want to get accomplished, how you're going to do it, and just kind of get everybody on the same page. You know, maybe your lenders, their interest rates have come down. Maybe there's a discussion, I guess they haven't come down really much, but maybe there's a discussion around that. Maybe there's a discussion around cash flow being tight and how to, how to manage that. Maybe you're bringing in some of your partners on decisions on growing crops, right?
Now's the time to set up that meeting, right? Get something on the books for before the end of the year and have your key contributors at your boardroom table. All right, guys, we're at the end here. Again, I just want to do a big congratulations to, to JC and Evan Lebro from Arborfield, Saskatchewan.
The Olympic curling trials start this weekend and so we're rooting for, I'm gonna root for.
On the, on the men's side, I'm gonna go with the highest ranked team, I guess second highest ranked team. I'm gonna go with Team Jacobs on that one. For the ladies side. For the women's side, even though Caitlin did not have time to meet with us for the podcast, we're not gonna hold that against an athlete that is going all out to make the Olympics. We're gonna put our positive energy behind Caitlin Laws and her rink and, and, you know, cheer these teams on to victory to represent Canada at the, the Olympics in, I think it's in, in Italy, but I could be wrong on that one again. Last chance for the online auction, Ryan den, Ryan Denis, Ca. That closes November 23rd, 8pm so that's Sunday night, 8pm there's some great deals on there. My friend Sarah with Trigger Grain, she's got a crop marketing service on there. It's, it's going way too cheap right now. If you want market intel recommendations, it's there. We've got left field commodities, Clarin Back research subscriptions. They're super cheap right now. Way lower than what you would normally pay. We got hockey tickets, Cabela's gift card.
We got Mori with ProGro with this WestJet travel card. And swag.
We've got a what, the future's hoodie. We've got a hat designed by Paisley.
Man, what am I missing here? We got, of course, UPL's battalion on there.
It's a great cause and all the money going to support that farmer crisis helpline.
So last chance coming up, 8pm November 23rd. You'll see it in our emails. You'll see it on my social media this weekend. But let's get after it.
Again, thank you to upl, Trigger Grain, Chuck Penner, Trent Clarenbach, Maury with Pro Grow. A bunch of great organizations helping us out. I'm sure I'm missing a few there, but thank you to everybody for, for helping us out. We got a Lunchbox Crew subscription in there.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: We've got.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Yeah, there's other things. Salsa. My wife made salsa. You guys. This is incredible stuff. A couple jars of salsa from Chantel. I need your help. I need your help because I want to be able to go home and say, hey hon, your salsa sold for 100 bucks or whatever it is. All right? So give me a hand on that one. All right, folks, have a great, great rest of your day. Great weekend. Any questions, you know where to hit me up. Hit that subscribe button. We'd certainly appreciate it. And thanks for tuning in to episode 101 of the what? The Futures podcast. My name is Ryan, and I'm out of here.
