英语翻译

英语翻译
Good Marketing includes forward pricing
By Kevin Hursh
Canadian grain producers who forward priced a portion of their 2007 crop may be regretting the decision.Most grain prices moved steadily higher in 2007,eclipsing the prices available before harvest.On the other hand,hog producers who forward priced 2007 production limited the financial damage from a soaring Canadian loonie and dropping hog prices.Not every decision to forward contract will be a money maker,but pricing commodities before they're produced can be an essential component of an overall marketing plan.
Who can forward contract?
Forward contracting is not a viable option for all commodities,and there are differences from one part of the country to another.
Across Canada,various marketing and pricing tools are available in the grain sector.While grain producers forward contract sales,livestock producers can forward contract the purchasing of feed grains.
In the beef cattle sector,some feedlots hedge the value of the Canadian dollar and use American futures contracts for finished cattle.However,Herb Lock of FarmSense Marketing out of Edmonton says it's more common for feedlots to deal directly with packing plants,including U.S.plants.
“Feedlots often have unwritten contracts with packers,” Lock notes.“Often these are long-held relationships.”
Cow-calf producers can create marketing options if they're able to consider alternatives other than selling their calves in the fall,but there are virtually no forward pricing tools available.
Part of the problem,Lock explains,is that the sale item is not readily definable.One lot of 600-pound calves can be dramatically different from another.
For hog producers,forward pricing is easily accomplished in some parts of the country,but not in others.In Alberta,the Western Hog Exchange markets about two million of the 3.1 million hogs produced in the province.Ron Landry,assistant general manager of the WHE,says for many years the exchange traded in American hog futures and U.S.dollars to provide a service to its producers.That was dropped in 2006.
“There were many times when producers should have acted to lock in prices and the directors agonized over dropping the service,” Landry says.In the end,limited use caused its demise.“When it ended,no one complained.”
The primary customer for market hogs in Alberta is Olymel,located in Red Deer.Olymel doesn't offer forward pricing.Yet further east in Saskatchewan and Manitoba,producers delivering to Maple Leaf facilities have the option of forward pricing through the packer.
“Anyone with a Maple Leaf contract can utilize it,” Don Hrapchak of SPI Marketing Group in Saskatoon explains.SPI is a producer-run marketing organization in Saskatchewan.