Choice.
It’s great to have a couple of options, sort through the information, and make the decision that’s going to generate the best outcome. Right?
Sure, but the problem often is we don’t know all the information and so are forced to make educated guesses.
In talking to clients throughout seeding, it has been interesting to observe how decisions have been made.
One client has just bought more land and machinery this year. They have plenty of seeding capacity and have the benefit of being able to be patient and make the decision to go just when conditions are right.
Another client, arguable undercapitalised in machinery, had no choice. Early April they had to start, otherwise they wouldn’t finish until June. Their canola is up on the back of the Easter rain, and the cereals are enjoying what little moisture is a bit deeper.
I kept this kind of thinking when building the strategic marketing model. We’ve got lots of options when marketing grain. Do we sell today, or not? How much? And these options don’t necessarily result in a better outcome because we don’t know all the variables for the rest of the season.
So, it’s forcing our hand a little to say “this is what you should do”.
This is why Farmgate Advisory is committed to helping farmers with what is actually useful. More information isn’t helping make better decisions. Better strategy is!