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The Story Behind The
Software
When I returned to our family farming operation in 1996 after working in the
seed business for 4 1/2 years, I was looking for a piece of software that would
allow me to test marketing and risk management decisions on paper before making
a commitment to an elevator, insurance agent, or commodity broker.
The government programs had changed drastically with LDP's and new crop
insurance products guaranteeing revenue instead of just bushels were just
starting to be used. I knew there had to be an easier way to become a better
marketer with all the tools out there, but knew I needed a piece of software to
help sort all this out.
Accounting Programs Can't
Predict Outcomes OF Decisions Over Unknown Prices and Unknown Final Yields
Most software we use on the farm allows us to track
past decisions, but there really hasn't been a good way to test, model and
predict the outcome of decisions looking forward. My software bridges the
gap between your accounting program looking backward and the unknown results of
decisions looking forward.
Assumptions Behind the
Software
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Yield and Prices are unknowns and must be measured over a wide range
in order to develop an effective risk management plan. (260 yield/price
combinations in the report.)
-
Breakeven is impossible to know until we get close to harvest.
(Look at your actual yields for the past 10 years and divide by your
production costs.) (Example, 80 bu corn in 1993 / $300 acre = $3.75
bu vs. 200 bu yield in 2005 / $300 = $1.50 bu.)
-
Breakeven is important, but I'm more interested in total revenue per
acre. Revenue can come from Grain Sales, Futures, Options, Gov't
programs, LDP's, and Crop Insurance. Yield and Price affect all of
these differently and it is almost impossible to calculate all these by
hand over a broad range of yield and prices.
-
With enough tools (marketing and crop insurance) and enough time by
starting well before planting, we should be able to eliminate or greatly
reduce our risk in spite of unknown future price and yields.
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The software had to model my decision making process as a farmer, not
how a a professor, consultant, or computer programmer thinks, but how an
actual farmer thinks.
-
The software had to be easy to use, simple to update, and provide a 1
page report that could be hung in my office to track all my marketing and
risk management plan.
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The software would not have to be updated unless I changed a marketing
position.
-
The software would allow me to test any possible combination of
strategies, including often risky or little understood ones recommended by
"experts".
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In order to evaluate all these variables effectively, I needed a
computer program to handle the math quickly and over a all possible
scenarios.
When I couldn't find anything on the market, I decided to build the program
myself. When other farmers started to show interest in the program, I
decided to form a company and sell this to other farmers. We have been selling the software for over four years now and have customers in
18 states. Our customers include farmers, banks, crop insurance agents,
commodity brokers, and grain elevators.
However, the bottom line is it has to benefit the farmer and
that will always be our core focus.
The link at the top of this page will take you to an article
that does a good job of describing
the company history, our product and what we are all about.
If you buy the software, I still take the phone calls and provide most of the
customer support. You can always reach me and if you need help
implementing it for your business or farm, I'm here to help
If there are questions that aren't answered on this website, please email be
at the link below and I'll be glad to get back to you as quickly as possible..
Once again...
Thanks,
David Olsen, President
Intuitive Agritech Sytems, Inc.
david.olsen@myfarmsoftware.com
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