Better Decisions: How high should corn go before you hedge?

The ‘Rule of Thirds’ may help you decide what hedging strategies to adopt after the great bull market in corn

by KEVIN SIMPSON

Remember the early part of the decade? Back then, ethanol had yet to create an elephant-sized hunger for corn and there had been two back-to-back years of disappointing yields for wheat and other non-GMO grains around the world.

Way back in 2004, corn traded to a lofty price of US$3.20 and two years later fell to $1.86 in the face of a big harvest. The great demand-led bull market of 1996 with its $5.50 corn was fading into history, confirmation that the good times were past and never to return.

Better Farming - December 2009