I went to jr high and high school in Western Oklahoma (in the 70's), with a wheat field behind our home. You could tell whether beef/wheat prices were high or not because if beef was high, the farmer would run cattle on the wheat. If wheat was high no cattle. It was a a low-grade hedging system.
Unless you know commodities well, particularly grain and meat, you're probably better off steering clear. You could play some options I suppose, assuming you'll lose them.
Where Dad grew up in Southern Oklahoma, just north of the Red River, a lot of farmers triangulated with cotton, but that required them to decide whether to plant cotton or wheat. At my twin's funeral, some of them were still doing this, apparently. A major league outfielder almost could throw a baseball over the town, so it's not exactly well populated, but it was interesting; I hadn't been there in 15 years. My youngest had apparently thought that I was exaggerating how small Dad and granddad's home town was, but when we stopped at the only gas station (and the only "restaurant" with some small selection of "deli food choices," he came up and said, Dad, this really is Hooterville.)
Both sons grew up in a Northeast Houston suburb not far from where several contributors live, and their high school was bigger than the University I attended, so they really had no clue what growing up in a town below 1000 was like. I guess it sounded like the Four Yorkshiremen sketch to them, until they went there for the funeral.
Unless you know commodities well, particularly grain and meat, you're probably better off steering clear. You could play some options I suppose, assuming you'll lose them.
Where Dad grew up in Southern Oklahoma, just north of the Red River, a lot of farmers triangulated with cotton, but that required them to decide whether to plant cotton or wheat. At my twin's funeral, some of them were still doing this, apparently. A major league outfielder almost could throw a baseball over the town, so it's not exactly well populated, but it was interesting; I hadn't been there in 15 years. My youngest had apparently thought that I was exaggerating how small Dad and granddad's home town was, but when we stopped at the only gas station (and the only "restaurant" with some small selection of "deli food choices," he came up and said, Dad, this really is Hooterville.)
Both sons grew up in a Northeast Houston suburb not far from where several contributors live, and their high school was bigger than the University I attended, so they really had no clue what growing up in a town below 1000 was like. I guess it sounded like the Four Yorkshiremen sketch to them, until they went there for the funeral.
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