Can’t see the forest for the trees

There’s more and more market information available to grain, oilseed and specialty crop producers, but more information is not necessarily more knowledge. In the latest Pulse Market Report from Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, there’s detailed information on the lentil, pea and chickpea crops in Turkey and Australia. This is great market intelligence, but it’s tough for a grower in Western Canada to wade through that information and form any useful conclusions about price trends. You can also find snippets of information in marketing newsletters on what’s happening in various regions of India and China. When there’s an important policy change or when there’s a major production trend in these countries that’s useful, but often the information is hard to interpret. Even our own Statistics Canada seeding intentions numbers need to be put in perspective to have any value. Have you ever listened to a market outlook presentation and walked away not feeling much smarter? Obviously, the experts can also have trouble processing all the conflicting information. Information is good, but analysis of all the factors is what producers really need. Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for all the trees. I’m Kevin Hursh.