Grades for the class

I will hand the final and packer feeder game assignment back in the grain marketing class March 26.  If you are not in the class contact me about a time to stop by and pick up your assignment.

Observations on the Final

  The final project was a place to put into place what we covered in the class: cost of production, sources of forecast information, futures and options for risk management.  Most of you did well. 

• A common error is that many of you did not provide detail on a risk management program, did not show your work to calcuate a hedge price or option floor price. 
• A second common error is that many of you did not identify, cite and document three sources of outlook.  Some of you found a futures price on three different websites, but futures are not outlook and there is only one futures market no matter how many places you find it posted. Others reported an outlook and then chose to ignore it when they developed their risk management plan. 
• Some people chose to ignore the assignment of having livestock to sell in December or you mixed and matched by buying feeder animals in March to feed for 5 months, but said you would sell in December. 

24 pts possible

• Define your commodity: 2 pts
• Define your market: 2 pts
• What are your costs: 4 pts
• What is the outlook:  3 pts
• What are your objectives: 3 pts
• Develop a risk management strategy: 4 pts
• What are the opportunities and the risks: 2 pts
• Overall report  4 pts

Observations about the Packer Feeder Game Paper.

   All of the teams did well on this assignment and showed signs that you did learn somethings about the market during the exercise. 

Course objectives:

• Learn how to apply economic principles to livestock marketing decisions
• Use hands-on simulations to evaluate risk management and marketing strategies

Suggestions for Final Exam

• BeefBasis.com
• Weaned pigs at 54% of 5 month out futures
• LMIC
• Iowa Farm Outlook
• USDA Outlook Conference
• Basis tables