It seems the only certainty in the ag industry is knowing there will always be a level of uncertainty. Knowing this, Agricultural Economic Insights (AEI) have designed a tool to help farmers forecast commodity prices within specific timeframes, share their predictions, and even get a payout if they are the most accurate.
David Widmar, with Agricultural Economic Insights, talks more about the tool they’ve developed, below.
“What makes it unique is you can log your forecasts, you can calibrate your expectations as new information becomes available. But then you can benchmark yourself against the consensus or everyone else in the network or peers in the network. And then at the end of day, you actually get a score.”
Of course there is a financial benefit to being skilled at accurately forecasting commodity prices, however, AEI looks to sweeten the pot even more by offering a monetary prize to the user who has the highest score, or who managed to be most accurate with their forecasting.
“So for this year, we have a contest around the USDA yields estimates for the USDA 16 questions, the grand prize is $1,600. So whoever can get the best forecast across those 16 questions throughout the growing season, gets that big prize,” Widmar says. The contest is open to both producers in the United States and Canada.
Whether a producer wants to hone in on their forecasting skills, or if they have a competitive side and want to see how they stack up against others in the industry, AEI’s new tool may be just the thing they’re looking for. The program is a part of AEI’s premium subscription and more information can be found at aei.ag.
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