Course 05 of 20 · Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy

Purchase Contracts & Origination

Stage B, Execution, storage and funding. Level 3 of 10.

The origination relationship and the farmgate purchase contract forms that commit quantity, delivery period and pricing method, plus the credit and performance assessment of a producer counterparty.

126 chapters · 12 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 01, Course 02, Course 04

Enrol or enquire See the 126 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

12 modules · 126 chapters

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

M0 The Farmgate Bargain at a Country Elevator Ch 1-10
  1. The Bushels Nobody Has Planted Yet
  2. The Merchandiser's Chair and the Grower's Chair
  3. Granted by the Grower, Held by the Elevator
  4. Why Buying From a Farm Is Not Buying From a Trade House
  5. The Owner-Operator, the Tenant and the Farm Company
  6. Grade Factors and the Posted Bid, Assumed Not Retaught
  7. What a Forward Farm Purchase Actually Risks
  8. The Purchase Forms a Country Elevator Offers a Farm
  9. Rule Sets Behind a Domestic Grain Bargain
  10. Where the Storage, Funding and Export Threads Leave This Desk
M1 The Origination Relationship With a Farm Business Ch 11-21
  1. The First Call on a Farm That Has Never Sold Here
  2. Which Entity on the Farm Can Actually Sign
  3. Crop Share Rent and the Landlord's Bushels
  4. Cash Rent and the Custom Operator's Acres
  5. The Spouse, the Son and the Second Entity
  6. The Cooperative Patron Against the Independent Seller
  7. The Facility Down the Road Bidding for the Same Loads
  8. The Grower Whose Marketing Adviser Places the Orders
  9. What the Input Side of the Same Business Already Knows
  10. Walking the Farm: Bins, Machinery and the Yield Monitor
  11. A Season of Loads or a Twenty-Year Relationship
M2 Striking the Trade and Confirming It Ch 22-31
  1. The Bargain Struck on a Telephone at Harvest
  2. The Confirmation Posted After the Call
  3. The Grower as Merchant: a Confirmation Question
  4. Recorded Lines, Messages and the Trade Nobody Wrote Down
  5. The Scale Ticket Is Not the Purchase Contract
  6. Four Fields That Must Be Right Before the Call Ends
  7. The Paper the Grower Takes Home and Signs
  8. Amending a Struck Trade Without Creating a Second One
  9. Who at the Buying Point May Commit a Delivery Month
  10. The Grower Who Says the Number Was Different
M3 Quantity: Bushels, Acres and the Crop That Must Exist Ch 32-42
  1. Writing the Quantity Line in Bushels
  2. Committing Acres Instead of Bushels
  3. A Stated Share of Whatever the Field Yields
  4. Measuring a Commitment Against the Farm's Own Record
  5. The Farm That Sold More Than It Can Grow
  6. Last Year's Grain Is a Different Promise
  7. About, Approximately and the Band Around a Farm's Volume
  8. Several Fields, Several Entities, One Purchase
  9. Short Delivery by a Grower and Short Delivery by a Merchant
  10. The Limit a Desk Sets on One Farm Before Planting
  11. Declaring the Final Volume as Harvest Closes
M4 The Delivery Period as a Commitment Ch 43-52
  1. Harvest Delivery Against a Deferred Month
  2. Who Picks the Day Inside the Delivery Window
  3. The Scale Line Nobody Drafted
  4. Delivering Here, to a Processor, or to a Rail Terminal
  5. The Haul Allowance Written Into the Form
  6. The Grower Who Delivers Three Weeks Early
  7. The Load That Never Came
  8. Pushing a Delivery Month Back at the Grower's Request
  9. Harvest Delivery Meaning Two Different Fortnights
  10. The Load-Out Calendar a Signed Farm Contract Creates
M5 Pricing Method as a Contract Commitment Ch 53-64
  1. Priced Now, Priced Later, Averaged or by Formula
  2. The Forward Cash Contract at a Flat Figure
  3. The Basis Contract: One Component Settled, One Open
  4. The Futures-Fixed Form and the Hedge-to-Arrive Disputes
  5. Delayed Price and Bushels With No Figure Established
  6. The Deferred Payment Form
  7. A Price Built From a Window of Settlements
  8. The Minimum Price Form and Where It Is Built
  9. The Pricing Deadline and the Fix Nobody Called
  10. Rolling an Open Component to a Later Month
  11. The Service Charge on an Unpriced Bushel
  12. Which Form the Grower Chose, and What It Left Open
M6 Title, Payment and the Grower as Unsecured Creditor Ch 65-74
  1. The Moment Title Passes at the Scale
  2. Reading a Settlement Sheet Line by Line
  3. The Grower Who Became an Unsecured Creditor
  4. Licensing and Bonding of a Grain Buyer
  5. Producer Payment Protection and Who Actually Holds It
  6. Payment Timing Written Into the Form
  7. The Joint Payee Cheque
  8. Setting Off a Seed and Fertiliser Account
  9. Assigning Sale Proceeds to a Third Party
  10. Did the Grower Sell, or Only Store
M7 The Lender's Claim on the Crop You Are Buying Ch 75-83
  1. The Operating Note Behind Every Growing Crop
  2. A Security Interest Over Grain Still in the Field
  3. The Farm Products Rule and the Buyer Who Pays Twice
  4. Searching for Claims Before the Cheque Is Written
  5. The Landlord's Claim on the Same Loads
  6. The Input Supplier Standing Behind the Crop
  7. Clear Title Warranted by the Grower
  8. Bushels Sitting in Somebody Else's Bin
  9. Paying the Grower and Still Owing the Lender
M8 Underwriting a Crop That Does Not Exist Ch 84-95
  1. What a Forward Farm Purchase Is Really Underwriting
  2. Yield History and the Spread Around It
  3. Acres, Agronomic Ceiling and the Honest Maximum
  4. Land Equity Against the Operating Note
  5. Crop Insurance as Performance Support
  6. The Concentration Limit on a Single Farm
  7. Limits Read by Delivery Month Rather Than by Farm
  8. Who Funds the Margin While a Price Stays Open
  9. The Grower Who Cannot Fund a Roll
  10. Signals That a Delivery Will Not Arrive
  11. The Farm Whose Adviser Holds Every Pricing Decision
  12. The Approval Sheet Before a Forward Bushel Is Bought
M9 Non-Performance Clauses as Drafted Ch 96-105
  1. The Act of God Clause in a Production Contract
  2. Force Majeure Drafted for a Growing Crop
  3. A Short Crop on One Farm Is Not Automatically an Excuse
  4. What a Farmgate Form Calls Default
  5. The Grower's Request to Be Let Out
  6. Proving a Replacement Value for One Grade at One Elevator
  7. Charges and Interest on a Commitment Carried Forward
  8. Arbitration Forums for a Domestic Grain Dispute
  9. The Grower's Counterclaim Against the Facility
  10. A Grower in Insolvency Part Way Through a Season
M10 Arguments the Grain Trade Has Not Settled Ch 106-115
  1. The Forward Contracting Benefit Argument and Its Assumptions
  2. The Forward Contracting Harm Argument and Its Assumptions
  3. The Argument for Buying Ahead of a Standing Crop
  4. The Argument Against a Grain Buyer Financing a Farm
  5. The Delayed Price Title Argument
  6. The Exclusivity and First Refusal Argument
  7. The Managed Pricing Programme Argument
  8. What a Merchandiser Must Not Tell a Grower About Returns
  9. Taking a Forward Buying Programme to the Credit Committee
  10. The Two Open Questions That Change What Is Offered
M11 Two Farm Programmes Worked, and the Limits Ch 116-126
  1. Case One: A Corn Farm Across Two Delivery Months
  2. Case One: Fixing the Volume and Choosing the Method
  3. Case One: The Drought That Took Half the Crop
  4. Case Two: A Wheat and Soybean Farm on Contract Acres
  5. Case Two: The Lender, the Landlord and the Joint Cheque
  6. Case Two: The Grower Who Oversold and Asked Out
  7. The Two Cases Compared Farm by Farm
  8. The Same Two Programmes Bought Spot at the Scale
  9. Four Conditions Both Cases Quietly Assumed
  10. What a Purchase Form Cannot Protect a Buying Point From
  11. Bushels Bought, and Where They Travel Next

The brochure gives each of these 126 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 5 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