Course 01 of 20 · Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy

Agricultural Commodity Business

Stage A, Crop, grade and price fundamentals. Level 1 of 10.

The map of the chain: how a crop moves from farmer to country elevator, merchant, processor and import buyer, and which actor earns which margin at each handover.

117 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: nothing: this is the entry point

Enrol or enquire See the 117 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 117 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 What the Grain and Oilseed Trade Is Ch 1-10
  1. Several Crops, One Set of Commercial Habits
  2. A Bushel Changes Hands Many Times Before Anyone Eats It
  3. Why No Single Firm Captures the Whole Price of a Crop
  4. The Crop Arrives in Weeks and Is Eaten All Year
  5. Bushels, Tonnes and the Units Two Traders Will Argue About
  6. The Words a Grain Desk Uses Before Breakfast
  7. Food, Feed and Fuel Bidding for the Same Tonne
  8. The Chain Branches Rather Than Running in a Line
  9. What a Grain Business Is Judged On
  10. A Week in a Grain Merchandising Seat
M1 The Farm as the First Seller Ch 11-21
  1. The Farm Is a Business With One Selling Season
  2. Owned Acres, Rented Acres and the Rent That Falls Due Anyway
  3. Machinery, Hired Labour and the Width of the Harvest Window
  4. The Bin on the Farm as a Commercial Weapon
  5. Why a Producer Needs Money in the Autumn
  6. What a Producer Actually Earns From an Acre
  7. Choosing Between Two Crops Is a Margin Comparison
  8. Insurance and Public Payments Inside a Farm's Income
  9. The Producer Who Prices Early and the One Who Refuses
  10. What a Producer Wants From the Firm It Sells To
  11. The Farm's Bargaining Position at Its Own Gate
M2 The First Handover: Farm Gate to Country Elevator Ch 22-32
  1. The Country Elevator and the Problem It Was Built to Solve
  2. Harvest Day at the Receiving Pit
  3. The Scale Ticket and the Moment Ownership Changes
  4. What an Elevator Charges For Whether It Owns Grain or Not
  5. The Elevator's Other Income: Buying Low and Selling On
  6. The Posted Bid as a Competitive Instrument
  7. Three Kinds of Elevator, Three Different Masters
  8. Selling at the Pit Against Storing in Someone Else's Bin
  9. Grain Delivered Now and Priced Later
  10. Selling Direct to a Processor and Removing a Handover
  11. Why the Country Bid Sits Below the Terminal Bid
M3 Moving the Crop Inland Ch 33-42
  1. The Lorry, the Driver and the First Twenty Miles
  2. Rail as a Contract for Wagons Rather Than a Journey
  3. The Barge and the River That Carries It
  4. The Shuttle Loader That Exists Because of a Train
  5. The River Terminal Where One Mode Becomes Another
  6. The Export Elevator at Deep Water
  7. Why Grain Waits in the Middle of a Journey
  8. Who Owns the Crop While It Is in Motion
  9. The Carrier's Fee and the Shipper's Exposure
  10. What Happens to Everyone When One Link Is Full
M4 The Merchant in the Middle Ch 43-53
  1. Why Anyone Sits Between an Elevator and a Mill
  2. Four Mismatches a Merchant Is Paid to Absorb
  3. The Local Merchant Who Knows Forty Farms
  4. The Trade House Buying in Several Countries at Once
  5. The Processor's Buying Arm Acting as a Merchant
  6. The Broker Who Never Takes Title
  7. The Cooperative Marketing Arm as a Rival Seller
  8. What a Firm Needs Before It Can Trade Grain at All
  9. The Merchant That Owns Facilities and the One That Owns None
  10. Do Merchants Add Value or Extract It: the Argument and Its Assumptions
  11. The Consolidation Argument and What Each Side Assumes
M5 The Processor as the Chain's Paying Customer Ch 54-64
  1. The Processor Buys an Input, Not a Commodity
  2. The Flour Mill as a Customer
  3. The Oilseed Crush Plant as a Customer
  4. The Feed Mill and the Buyer Behind It
  5. The Corn Milling Plants and Their Several Outputs
  6. The Maltster, the Rice Mill and the Smaller Processing Trades
  7. Why a Factory Runs Every Day but Buys Every Week
  8. One Input, Several Products, One Processing Margin
  9. Toll Processing: Earning a Fee Without Owning the Crop
  10. The Factory Gate Bid That Outbids the Country Elevator
  11. What a Processor Will Not Buy at Any Discount
M6 Across the Border: Exporters and Import Buyers Ch 65-75
  1. Why Some Crops Must Leave the Country That Grew Them
  2. The Exporter and What It Commits To
  3. Selling at the Ship's Rail Against Selling Delivered
  4. The Trader Who Buys a Cargo Already at Sea
  5. The State Buying Agency and the Public Tender
  6. The Private Importer and the Distribution It Controls
  7. The Destination Mill as the Mirror of the Country Elevator
  8. The Importer in a Country That Cannot Grow Enough Feed
  9. Why Import Demand Arrives in Lumps
  10. The Importing Buyer's Real Cost in Its Own Money
  11. Who Earns Between the Vessel and the Bakery
M7 Where the Money Is Made at Each Handover Ch 76-87
  1. Four Ways to Earn From a Crop You Did Not Grow
  2. The Service Charge That Is Really a Loan
  3. The Gain on Grain You Owned and What It Pays For
  4. Holding the Bin as a Source of Income
  5. Rights Given Away Without Anyone Pricing Them
  6. Why Several Margins Fit Inside One Price
  7. Which Earnings Repeat Every Season and Which Do Not
  8. How a Margin Gets Competed Away
  9. Who Absorbs a Bad Year at Each Handover
  10. Earnings for Each Tonne Against Return on the Capital Tied Up
  11. A Margin Ledger for One Load, Part One: Field to Terminal
  12. A Margin Ledger for One Load, Part Two: Terminal to Buyer
M8 Price Moves and Who Feels Them Ch 88-98
  1. A Price Move Means Nothing Until You Know Your Seat
  2. The Producer Is Long Its Crop Whether It Wants to Be or Not
  3. The Processor Is Short the Grain It Has Not Yet Bought
  4. The Elevator's Exposure Is Empty Space, Not Price
  5. The Exporter With a Sale Made and No Cargo Bought
  6. Harvest Pressure as an Event the Whole Chain Shares
  7. When Two Buyers in One District Want the Same Train
  8. A Weather Scare Read From Four Different Seats
  9. A Foreign Purchase Large Enough to Move the Country
  10. A Levy at the Border and the Seat It Lands On
  11. What an Agricultural Headline Is Actually Worth
M9 Inside a Grain Merchandising Business Ch 99-108
  1. How a Grain Trading Company Is Put Together
  2. The Farm Sales Seat and the Relationship It Protects
  3. The Merchandiser's Seat and the Decision It Owns
  4. Traffic and Scheduling: the Seat That Makes It Move
  5. Grain Accounting and the Settlement Nobody Watches
  6. The Country Manager Told to Fill Space and Buy Cheaply
  7. What a Grain Book Must Be Able to State About Itself
  8. Where the Merchandiser and the Location Manager Fall Out
  9. Grain That Was Pledged Twice and Never Existed
  10. Mistakes That Cost More Than a Wrong Market View
M10 One Load Followed Through, and the Limits of a Map Ch 109-117
  1. The Whole Grain Chain in One Picture
  2. Following One Load, Part One: Combine to Country Scale
  3. Following One Load, Part Two: Country Facility to River Terminal
  4. Following One Load, Part Three: Terminal to the Buyer Who Uses It
  5. The Same Parcel Stored, Processed or Exported, Compared in Outline
  6. A Load That Reached the Mill and Earned Nobody Anything
  7. Where One Load, One Crop and One Buyer Flatten the Truth
  8. Knowing the Chain Is Not Yet Merchandising a Bushel
  9. Reading the Pathway From Here: Nineteen Courses in Order

The brochure gives each of these 117 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 1 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway