Farmers should always look for ways to sell the carry, and put options help you do that. I mentioned before that Dec options would be more expensive than Sept because there is more time, more risk and more uncertainty. That is not true under the current market conditions. This makes put options very attractive, and very reasonably priced. The farther out you go, the cheaper they become.
Compare wheat puts to soybean puts, where there is no carrying charge.
Soybean puts are much more expensive. Puts are an excellent tool to use in your marketing plan, especially with the full carrying charge in the wheat market. They provide a price floor, but your upside potential is unlimited if we do get a big rally this fall. You buy crop insurance with the hope that you will not have to use it, and the same applies to put options. In 2000, if you would have bought puts in the spring and held them until fall, the puts would have made you money.