A second glitch was that Cargill took up to a month to pay for some grain deliveries, Gleespen says. Some neighbors compare this to contract hog farming. Gleespen sees differences. I have that way out. Terry Thomas, crops manager at Gleespen's co-op, says most of his 15 customers with Performance 90 also felt they didn't sell soon enough last year.
Growers can buy insurance under that or leave it uninsured.
And growers must pay for four scouting trips. Last year, the feedlot offered a production contract for corn that 19 farmers used on 20,000 acres. Farmers bought underlying crop insurance on their own. Unlike Cargill's contracts, farmers had few restrictions on inputs. In the future, his feedlot may contract for corn varieties with strong feedlot performance or perhaps for nongenetically modified corn.