Grain merchandising has always been fast-paced, but the margin for delay has never been smaller. Experienced merchandisers agree the window to capture a basis opportunity, respond to a grade issue, or adjust a shipping plan has compressed dramatically, and that the cost of hesitation is increasingly quantifiable.
"Futures prices can change in under a second, so making sure one has the capabilities to execute hedges as close to when one talks to their customer is imperative," said Mike Hogan, corporate origination manager at Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. "That time is real money."
What slows that process down is fragmented and delayed data. Margin quietly disappears due to missed offers, outdated pricing and lagged hedge execution.
Matt Morog, grain department manager for Central Farmers Co-op, has experienced the difference firsthand in hedging speed.
"Having an automated hedging procedure for offers has helped us immensely," Morog said, though he admits he prefers full manual control on spread decisions.
"Capable merchandising systems used to be a luxury," Hogan said. "Now they are a necessity."
What separates elevators that consistently capture opportunity from those that don't increasingly comes down to the technology infrastructure behind their merchandising teams. According to merchandisers in the field and leading platform providers, advanced tools for market intelligence, risk management and workflow integration are reshaping what it means to compete in today's grain markets.
The fragmentation problem
The daily workflow for many grain merchandisers is a balancing act across systems that weren't designed to work together. Ashley Koenig, head of account management for commodities at Barchart, said this increases risk at the elevator level.
"Fragmented systems — a mix of spreadsheets, outdated systems with little or no integration capabilities and manual processes — increase the chance of errors across everything from hedge tracking to contract management," she said.
The fragmentation problem can also be seen at the enterprise level. Mary Marquardt, president of Grossman Software Solutions (GSS), said for large organizations spanning multiple states or countries, real-time position visibility isn't a convenience — it's a risk management requirement.
"When decision-makers must wait for updated data, the likelihood of leaving a trade unhedged increases," she said.
When contracts live in one place, hedge positions in another and inventory data somewhere else, the task of assembling a complete picture of net exposure often falls to the merchandiser, under time pressure. Morog noted time constraints are especially challenging at peak season.
"The biggest bottleneck I see is entering contracts and getting those contracts sent out and signed," he said. "We utilize an e-sign function, but it's still cumbersome, especially on high volume days."
Hogan described this pain point for merchandisers as an evolution over the last few decades.
"The bottlenecks 20 years ago used to be compiling that data by the close of business," he said. "Now the bottleneck likely sits with the decision maker — which is where it should sit if one has solid, reliable systems."
That shift from data assembly to decision-making is what modern merchandising platforms were designed to enable. Workflows that once required tracking offers in a spreadsheet, manually re-entering them into a brokerage platform, and then entering for a third time into an ERP system to generate a contract have been condensed into one step with platforms like Barchart’s cmdtyView.
"What took three systems and multiple entry points now is streamlined and integrated across the grain elevator,” said Koenig.
Where technology excels
Three areas emerge when grain merchandisers and technology providers describe what effective platforms actually deliver: position and risk visibility, workflow integration and error reduction, and origination and producer communication.
On the position and risk side, the value of real-time visibility compounds across an organization's scale. Marquardt described how GSS’s Agrosoft platform updates contract balances and inventory instantly with each transaction, allowing large operations to quickly determine whether a long position in one region offsets a short position in a neighboring area.
"Accurate, up-to-the-minute position data enables traders to leverage the scale of their organization, helping mitigate risk while reducing costs for both the company and its customers," she said.
Workflow integration is where the margin protection becomes most tangible. Koenig recalled her experience working in grain contracting and settlement.
"When you’re handling hundreds of contracts and relying on hand-entered data for every contract and settlement, it’s not a question of if but when you make a mistake," she said. "Saving just one or two of these mistakes justifies the cost of integrating the cmdtyView offer management system to your back-end accounting systems."
CGB’s integrated workflows endured a real-world stress test when the pandemic forced buying teams out of the office overnight. Hogan said elevators with portable CRM and ERP infrastructure barely missed a beat.
"Our CRM and data systems allowed our merchants to move seamlessly from buying in the office to buying from their couch," he said.
On the origination side, Hogan framed the competitive reality facing country elevators directly. When price alone isn't enough to win bushels against a processor or ethanol plant with on-site storage, everything else has to work harder.
"It's really about how easy producers determine you are to do business with," Hogan said. "If they can get in and out quickly, have a trusted advisor to talk to about decisions and markets with, have ease-of-use tools like an app, that can make a world of difference."
Beyond price alerts and contract notifications, cooperatives can use SMS and email tools to drive grower engagement in ways that have nothing to do with basis.
Koenig shared how far some of Barchart's cooperative client elevators have taken the idea. One offered a free drink and hot dog to any farmer who brought a scale ticket into their convenience store during harvest. Another gave away sweatshirts to the first growers to call in an offer within specified market parameters.
"No matter how creative the idea, cooperatives need a way to get the word out,” Koenig said.
AI — real utility, realistic limits
One topic that grain merchandisers and technology providers approach with both enthusiasm and caution is artificial intelligence. The consensus is that while AI is a powerful tool, it is not replacing the merchandiser anytime soon.
"AI really works well for polishing up communication and thoughts," Hogan said. "The first step will be the ability for it to consistently pull data from various sources and compile it the way the user wants to see the data. Then the human can make the decision based on accurate data."
Decision-making, he said, will remain a human function.
"I have yet to see AI accurately point out and decipher market trends, risk analysis or other forecasting items," Hogan said.
Morog also has limited confidence in relying on AI to make grain merchandising decisions and noted the economics of implementation just don’t add up for this industry.
"AI, I think, has the ability to assist a grain merchandiser, but I doubt its ability to take over the workspace fully," he said. "Not many companies are going to have the ability to take on the initial cost aspect with the returns on grain handling."
As for AI integration with merchandising platforms, Koenig sees a progression from data aggregation to predictive analytics to suggesting actions — with the merchandiser retaining decision authority throughout.
"The merchandiser still wants to retain the decision-making capabilities, but AI and stronger interoperability between systems will give them suggestions and alternatives at a much faster rate than what exists today," Koenig said.
The industry is approaching AI the same way merchandisers approach any new market signal — with curiosity, not blind trust.
Human talent trumps tech
Technology can streamline a workflow, automate a hedge, and surface a basis opportunity in real time. It can’t, however, recruit, develop and retain the people who know what to do with any of it.
"Recruiting, investing in, and retaining the best talent is the key to success for grain companies going forward," said Kevin Clausen, principal at John Stewart and Associates. "The grain industry is very dynamic, but at its core it comes down to fundamental analysis in your region and relationships with buyers, sellers and logistic providers."
Hogan related how producer expectations have risen alongside technology to the issue of human capital. A CRM system isn't just an efficiency tool — it's a relationship preservation tool that records the context of every producer conversation so that institutional knowledge doesn't leave when a merchandiser does.
"That data is also captured for the next merchant in the seat," he said.
Clausen noted that access to data has increased tenfold in recent years, and that information is now a baseline expectation rather than a competitive advantage. The implications of this are significant for grain merchandisers. As platforms become more capable and data more accessible, "the key differentiator is analysis of that information and the ability to convert that into profitable action," Clausen said.
This environment puts a premium on merchandisers who combine market instinct with technological fluency — who can move fluidly from a producer conversation to a position dashboard to a hedging decision. Building and keeping those people remains the biggest problem grain companies face and one that no platform can solve.
Where it's all heading
The ability to sense and act on what’s coming — anticipating a basis move, positioning ahead of a weather event, securing a freight lane before the competition — will always be valuable traits in grain merchandising. Today, the infrastructure available to support those instincts is changing.
"Historically, merchandisers have made decisions reacting to market changes and grower sentiment," Koenig said. "The future feels like it is trending towards getting and staying ahead of the market, driving conversations with the right growers at the right times, and using systems that work together to create a cohesive and informed experience for the merchandiser."
Marquardt sees the same trajectory from the enterprise side, pointing to data lakes, customer portal expectations, and AI-driven analysis of quality metrics, projected storage volumes, and pricing opportunities as the next frontier for large grain organizations. The underlying driver is the expectation that information is available instantly, accurately and in a format that supports action.
And yet, for all the platforms, integrations, and AI tools on the horizon, Clausen said grain merchandising still comes down to fundamental analysis in your region and relationships with buyers, sellers and logistics providers. Technology is only accelerating the process, not changing the formula.
