You're just too busy in the field to respond. If that scenario sounds familiar, you've got plenty of company. Charlie Lowrance of Driver, Ark., got tired of missing the marketing boat too often. So he rented out the cotton acreage on Lowrance Brothers farmland to concentrate on growing soybeans and wheat-and marketing the farm's grain crops. He organized CoMark, a unique grain cooperative and marketing pool.
Growers agree to deliver the specified amount of grain to an elevator in their area.
CoMark works out the details with each elevator the farmers choose. Exceeding Projections Four different professional marketing advisers, each independent of the others, recommend the action to take. Usually the advice includes a combination of hedges and options. Early on, Lowrance's goal was for the co-op's 80 or so shareholders to sign up 1 million bushels into two market pools. Growth has exceeded projections.