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Broker says volatility is the market trend now

A broker and marketing consultant says the trend right now in the commodity markets is volatility.

Bryan Doherty with Total Ag Marketing tells Brownfield the market is seeing violent up and down price moves roughly every other week. “Those trends, that volatility trend is a reflection of two things. One, tightening supply and tight inventory, so there’s this rapid buying that comes in pretty quickly if they worry about supplies being tightened, and then the second thing is we’re right in the throes of a weather market.”

And, Doherty says the weather forecast only adds more volatility to a commodity market that is focused on weather. “Pretty much the entire nation outside of the state of Arizona, imagine that, is going to be above normal in temperature and below normal in precipitation so basically, it looks like a warmer, drier forecast.”

Doherty says many areas that have had a little moisture need a lot more as crops hit the home stretch. “And when you get into western Minnesota, you get into the Dakotas, northwest Iowa, Nebraska, those are really key spots that need more moisture.

Doherty spoke to Brownfield during Wisconsin’s Farm Technology Days near Eau Claire.