Writing about what’s going on in agriculture isn’t easy. Not only are the prices for corn or soybeans different throughout the country, Ag Media needs to provide a neat little wrapper around the complex components like transportation, weather, geology, and technology that impact pricing around the globe. On top of that, journalists need to make sense of complex economic factors like supply and demand that ultimately have an impact on both basis and futures markets.

You almost need to have degrees in Economics, Meteorology, Agronomy, and Finance just to wrap your head around the market. It’s enough to make your head spin!

But what if there was an easier way? Work smarter, not harder right?

Well the team at cmdty is working to help ag media do just that with through a few different efforts. First, we launched the cmdty Media Network in late 2019 to help Ag radio and TV drive engagement with their audience. It’s been a hit so far as our long list of partners demonstrates. Now we’re taking that a step further with the creation of a free tool to help journalists analyze corn and soybean basis in Excel.

Using Excel for Basis Analysis

In our brand new Excel Template, we provide users with simple access to real-time basis values at the State, Region, and National level for corn and soybeans. Not only that, we’ve gone to the trouble of calculating historical averages, so understanding where current basis sits relative to seasonality patterns is as simple as opening-up the workbook. Here’s a peak at some of the pre-built analytics available, which shows a run-up in basis across the Western and Delta growing regions.

Here are examples of insights that our tool generates automatically for users:

• The cmdty National Corn Basis Index has increased by 2.58c in the past month, and is 15.38c higher than it was one year ago.
• The largest regional change in basis over the past month has been in the Delta Region where basis has increased by 4.18c to -4.48c
• Premiums between the Eastern and Western regions are decreasing slightly (-1c) and are up to 21.7c from a year ago (17.5c)
• Based on historical seasonality trends we typically see basis weaken by about 14% heading into next month

2020 Ag Media Summit

Oh, did I mention that we’ll also be hosting a special session at our 2020 Grain Summit that is completely dedicated to ag media? We’re calling it the Ag Media Summit (creative, I know right?) and we’ll be spending lots of time with our media partners to ensure they have all the tools needed to create the best ag media. We’re excited to hear more about the challenges and opportunities within the media space, and we strongly believe that building a stronger network of like-minded peers will help everyone evolve.

It’s totally free for card carrying members of the media - so grab your ticket here

Do you have any ideas for tools you would like to see? We love getting ideas from our partners so definitely reach out at cmdty@barchart.com if you have any ideas.