ACTUAL FARMER MARKET TIMING

One maxim that has been circulating among farmers is that most farmers sell in the lower third of the market. This maxim is soundly rejected using data from Oklahoma elevators. In fact, roughly half of producers sell in the upper third of the market. Thus, there does not seem to be a great need for producers to hire a market advisor to do their marketing for them. But, some farmers do store longer than is optimal and they could be encouraged to sell sooner after harvest. In the short run, farmers sold after price increases and held after price decreases. Price movements in the days after a large number of sales were no different than price movements after few sales. While farmers are noise traders in the short run, it does appear that they are responding to long-run market signals. Even though there may be room for improvement, it appears that farmers are doing a good job of deciding when to sell their wheat.