Maryland Grain Marketing Notebook is a set of 15 fact sheets on grain marketing plans, futures and options, basis, storage decisions, and a glossary. Cost is $8. Make a check payable to The University of Maryland and send the order to the Department of Agricultural Economics, 2200 Symons Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.

Maryland extension also has a marketing fact sheet series, free from Lehigh County Extension Office:

• Maryland Grain Basis Tables 1989-94: Southern Pennsylvania (series 94-01).
• A Guide to the Mechanics of Futures Trading: Brokers, Margins and Trading (series 94-02).

Meeting the Competition is a fact sheet series from the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service. It's available free from the Lehigh County Extension Office. Titles include:

• Managing Corn for Grain Quality.
• Questions and Answers on Grain Quality.
• Reducing Breakage and Fines in Shelled Corn.
• Reducing Breakage and Fines in Soybeans.
• Understanding and Managing Stored Grain
• Losses Caused by Fungi and Insects.
• Determinants of Exports

Grades, Standards and Types of Damage is a fact sheet series from the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Using photos and descriptions, these guides help grain producers and buyers identify and solve quality problems. Cost is $3 each. Order with a check payable to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, and send to Extension Distribution and Supply, Attention Mollie Byrd, P.O. Box 1209 Bryan, TX 77806. The titles are:

• Corn: Grades, Standards and Damage (B-5091).
• Wheat: Grades, Standards and Damage (B-5092).
• Sorghum: Grades, Standards and Damage (B-5090)

Price reporting by the PA Market News Service, every Monday on cash and futures quotes for grain and auction prices for hay and straw by region. The reports are available three ways:

1. PENpages computer network (see page 1), with the complete grain and hay prices and volumes.
   
2. Recorded market news phone line, with brief grain and hay prices and volumes, after the livestock prices, phone (717) 787-6006.
3. Lancaster Farming, Section

Obtain the free publications by getting the Publications Catalog, available from the Publications Department, phone (800) THE-CBOT. Or simply mail a list of the titles and numbers to the department at the address above, or fax it to (312) 341-3168.

• Corn Futures and Options (13 p., EM 11-5).
• Soybean Futures and Options (13 p., EM 11-6).
• Wheat Futures and Options (13 p., EM 11-4).
• Oat Futures (9 p., EM 12-1).
• Handbook Series on Agricultural Markets (10 booklets on futures spreads and weather factors).
• Options on Ag Futures Course (44 p., EM 11-3).
• Do's & Don'ts of Futures Trading (broch., EM 41-2).
• Introduction to Agricultural Hedging and Introduction Workbook (32 p., EM 13-1, 13-2).
• Understanding Basis (43 p., EM 12-4).
• Marketing Clubs, A Hands-On Approach to Marketing (13 p., EM 11-10).
• Offering Farmers Cash Contracts (23 p., EM 11-8)

Borrow these VHS video tapes at no cost:

• Fundamentals of Futures (50 min., EM 46-2).
• Taking Control of Your Future (20 min., EM 12-1).
• Alternative Uses for Ag Options (18 min., EM 11-9).

Newspapers such as Lancaster Farming and The Wall Street Journal are well known, as are their limitations for current information. LF is weekly; WSJ and other general circulation newspapers run a condensed daily report of commodity quotes.

Satellite units for home reception provide near-time quotes on futures and options of all ag and other commodities. Trend charts, weather maps, market news, and outlooks are shown, as are local Pennsylvania prices for many ag commodities. These services have an initial charge and a monthly fee:

• Data Transmission Network (DTN), Embassy Plaza Building, 9110 West Dodge Road, Suite 200, Omaha, NE 68114, phone (800) 485- 4000.
• FarmDayta, from Broadcast Partners, 11275 Aurora Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50322, phone (515) 221-2000.

Advice on how to respond to the grain market ranges from the columnist in a farm magazine to the licensed, full service broker. Besides the ag economists in the farm media, other free market outlooks come from speakers at grower meetings or on satellite screens. Full service futures commission merchants guide a client in a carrying out a custom marketing plan, provide in-house data and interpretation, and execute the client's trades. Discount futures commission merchants simply execute trades as instructed. Consultants offer the advice and planning, but don't execute market orders. To understand the choices, consider obtaining:

• A Guide to the Mechanics of Futures Trading (see page 3 under Maryland extension).
• Investor's Bill of Rights (see page 6, from the National Futures Association).

Contact Info for PA Cooperative Extension Offices:

Lehigh County Cooperative Extension
4184 Dorney Park Road
Allentown PA 18104
Phone: 610-391-9840
Fax: 610-391-0683

Related Links:

• Cooperative Extension in Other States
• Market Outlook & Price Forecasts, University of Michigan
• PSU Agronomy Guide

• USDA
• PDA