Drift & Return

Nic Kumbalek joins Rodney & Gabe to talk a bit about energy, the challenges of shippers (and shipping) in the current environment and the challenges with hedging shipping costs.  We touch briefly on Cyclospora - A plug for - Little Leaf Farms (as well as other indoor growers) are free and clear on this type of pathogen - so contrary to Rodney's hopes he doesn't really have an excuse to pass the produce aisle.Finally - Gabe rode 84 miles on a bike for charity, and comedically drank 32 gallons of water to make it the distance - he's not built for endurance.  If you're interested in supporting cancer research please don't hesitate to share a couple bucks - https://profile.pmc.org/pmc/GS0282  

Cole Stock of Western Grain Marketing joins the podcast this time.  Some heady topics around the idea of "fairness" in markets.  Is zone bidding ok?  The group talks about some alternatives to trailing stops to help defer pricing and finally make some poorly informed guesses as to what corn cash price will be as we roll into harvest.  

Rodney and Gabe are joined by lender Jacob Chapman for some discussion around NPV and better understanding what Jacob on the banking side really digs into before underwriting a loan.
Some technical difficulties on this one so it's a bit more edited than normal
If you're interested in our take on Iran and current markets the TL;DR is Rodney and Gabe remain wary but hopeful.  How can the duo hold both views at the same time?  They're human, contain multitudes and may in fact contradict themselves from time to time.   

Rodney and Gabe talk with Matt Webster from River Valley Cooperative.  Overall a good chat on how to position yourself in a market that's opening up a little bit and creating moments where you can lock some expected profit.  We also reflect a bit on some of the "free money" opportunities we've seen come up over the years and the dangers those posses.  Rodney and Gabe also claim to have a plan to have some more consistent podcasts again - we'll see if they're able to execute 
You can reach Matt at - mwebster@rvc.ag and Rodney at rodney@clearviewcommodities.com 
 

Rodney & Gabe are joined by crop Insurance Agent - Ryan Leifheit to discuss some of the biggest changes in crop insurance as a result of 2025 legislation (OB3).  Rodney and Gabe close with this sentiment, but crop insurance is where every risk management plan in the US begins - not using crop insurance, when you can, is throwing away some of the biggest subsidies US farmers have access to.  The 2026-27 program is one of the more generous we've seen in the programs current edition.
If you're looking to better understand how to optimize the choices in front of you Ryan is ready to assist - you can email him at rleifhe@1stfarmcredit.com
And as usual if you're looking for help on crop marketing, and understanding how those crop insurance decisions impact how you approach grain marketing reach out to Rodney - -rodney@clearviewcommodities.com
 
One day soon we may stumble on what Gabe can help with, but as for now, the search continues 

After an end of year break, Rodney and Gabe catchup on how they spent the holidays but also venture back into risk management territory, covering how time should be part of your marketing plan and some specifics on how to work around it.

Rodney and Gabe get a chance to talk with Yasha Protnoy of EarthAcre about how a technologist create solutions for corralling data from the physical world that doesn't smoothly lend itself to systematic integration - in this case where government managed title searches aren't the norm for determining land ownership.  We also talk about EarthAcre's unique and intuitive approach to assessing biodiversity, that creates an alternative path to evaluating ecosystem health and diversity.
 
 

Rodney and Gabe chatted with Ben Brame ( https://www.contango.live/ ) in this episode. Ben dropped on us the unique combination of insightful and funny nuggets, and we ended up in place we didn't expect where Ben asks us to think about "what information did you have access to" when a given price, like the contract high, trades. It's a far kinder and reasonable filter on how to asses pricing performance - a great idea, still some work left on execution building out that benchmark. We may have ultimately stumbled on the secret benchmarking sauce - how did I perform against my own sense of procrastination. While the crew briefly touch on the expected failure of SNAP funding's impact on commodity prices - we just wanted to share a bit more on our thoughts with regards to SNAP: A desire approaching a sense of duty to keep our friends, neighbors, communities, and ultimately fellow humans well fed is something Rodney & Gabe believe is and should be shared beyond beliefs, political or otherwise. Seeing this critical service, SNAP, fail to be funded through legislation or emergency action is incredibly frustrating and disappointing to see. If you're lucky enough to have extra resources, if you haven't already we strongly encourage you to reach out to your local foodbanks and lend a hand.

Gabe and Rodney talk with Rob Huston, co-founder of Innovative Grain about the challenges small businesses face in extracting actionable insights from their data, even when they're doing everything "right".
 

As harvest fast approaches in northern Illinois Rodney & Gabe catchup the weekend after their respective town fall celebrations. If that's not enough for you, they go back to the well covering some fundamental and tricky parts of understanding volatility and option pricing.
Here's to wishing you dry (but not to dry) weather and a safe harvest!