Why has it taken so long? Finally, websites are here where farmers can sell their grain and oilseeds to a multitude of buyers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Now across the country, millions of dollars of online deals are being brokered between farmers and buyers online. And this is still just the beginning.
Step one was to simply list buyers and sellers on websites. Step two saw some companies let selected growers use their websites to sell grain and oilseeds directly to them. Now, get ready for step three. On relatively few sites, grain and oilseed commodities are being actively cash traded.
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Five years ago DTN pioneered the e-market. Next came a small Midwestern company called FarmTech, which was bought by another not-so-small company called Dupont. In Canada, some consultants and brokers have rushed in too, mostly providing added service for an established clientele or focusing on a specific geography.
COUNTRY GUIDE talked to three companies that run websites where you can sell and buy grains and oilseeds. Surprisingly (or maybe not), each of the websites works differently. Some operate like an eBay auction. Others have buyer or seller listings, and another offers automatic booking of futures contracts with a cash purchase.
Here s what we should know.
With over 600,000 subscribers to DTN and its magazine PROGRESSIVE FARMER, this web-based company has major market share in the U. S. Midwest and south, and it is also has a huge following across Canada of farmers who live by its ag weather and market reports.
Even so, DTN is more than an ag company. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, it is also a major force in the fuels, aviation, construction and transportation industries, to name only a few.
For Internet grain sales, that fuel connection has proved a major competitive advantage, providing a template for farm marketing.
Five years ago, DTN broke new ground with DTN Marketspace, the first website in the U. S. (and likely the world) to facilitate online cash grain trades.
DTN already had experience operating an exchange platform for wholesale buying of petroleum products in its other vertical markets, says Tamara Kass, DTN director of agriculture products. We ve just extended our services to allow farmers and agribusiness to use it as another business tool.
Originally, DTN added the service to attract agribusinesses that wanted not only to manage grain origination online but also to contact more farmers more efficiently than they d ever been able to reach before. That s why it s fundamentally an offer-driven service replacing the outbound calling tree the companies used in the past.
As the service has grown, however, other attributes have also become critical. In markets that have become so volatile, Kass points especially to the fact that the service is secure, private, immediate and available 24 hours a day.
Moreover, this system produces an electronic trail of the transaction. Merchants and producers know exactly what they ve traded at exactly what time. It s all documented so both sides know all the details. Once agreed, an
