Producer Profile
Mark Elmore, a sorghum producer from Allison, Texas appreciates the value of selling his grain at a guaranteed price. Elmore pre-contracts his dry-land grain sorghum with Texas Farm L.L.C., a subsidiary of Nippon Meat Packers, Inc.
“It helps me to know exactly what I will get for my sorghum crop at harvest. If it looks like the numbers won’t work out on paper, then I won’t put anything in the ground,” says Elmore. “It’s a lot less stressful to know that I will get a good price for my grain.”
Elmore has been utilizing this marketing strategy for the past two years after he heard an advertisement on the radio and says it has substantially paid off in years when markets prices were low. Texas Farm typically signs an acreage contract, priced on or before delivery, meaning that Elmore agrees to deliver everything that those acres produce. Because he harvests about 450 acres, Elmore says this can prove to be a very profitable method of marketing his grain.
Jamie Davis at Texas Farm says it is beneficial for the company to buy grain for its feeding rations directly from producers because they can both capitalize on such a contract.
“We help feed the world,” said Davis. “It’s one big circle; we buy the grain to feed our pigs, and the pork could eventually end up on the tables of the producers who sold us the grain.”
Nippon Meat Packers, Inc. is well known for it’s exports of pork to Japan. The Japanese are partial to sorghum fed pork, making Elmore’s form of marketing his grain valuable to the entire industry.
While Elmore says it’s somewhat inconvenient to drive 90 miles one way to sell his grain, he definitely recommends it to other producers. By selling his grain to an end-user, he is guaranteed a good price for his product.
Florentino Lopez, USCP Marketing Director, says having different opportunities allows producers to choose the best marketing strategy for them.
“It’s important to know your options because when there are more options on the table, we can make a more informed decision. The goal of the USCP is to bring these opportunities to producers so they can make more profitable choices from year to year.”