They must put marketing into a decision-making framework, to make decisions from a strong knowledge base. This farmer has a false base of comparison. We need to do a better job of helping farmers monitor pricing performance. The concept of being a little better than average in production also holds for marketing. The comparison base should be the average, not the absolutely highest price.
Planning is absolutely essential in marketing.
Farmers must know what their marketing objectives are before they'll recognize they have been reached. Reaching objectives is called success. Planting and harvest season, however, isn't the time to formulate the plan, but rather to act on the plan if market thresholds are reached. The returns from an added hour of time spent weekly in marketing may yield some of the highest potential earnings possible. Many of the marketing decisions that relate to physical handling and delivery can be made with simple budget analysis, without gambling.