Best of the Best Workshop Held in Bismarck - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Farming can be a risky business.

Today area producers get a lesson in improving their profits. 

Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin has more on the outlook of this year's wheat industry.

In Bismarck Thursday, Farmers get the scoop on which crops will generate the most dollars in the years ahead.

(Dwight Aakre / NDSU Farm Management Specialist) "We've come off 4-5 years that have been excellent corn, soybean weather. And that is not the historical weather patterns in the state, so I think there is more risk associated with those crops, and as you move west, even greater."

The Best of the Best in Research and Marketing Workshops are being held across the state.

The workshops give producers tools to improve their management decisions and address some of the most critical issues wheat, barley and soybeans producers are facing.

Marketing wheat in 2013 is one of the hottest topics on the agenda.

(Neal Fisher / ND Wheat Commission) "We have seen some signs that our market has been trending lower, but every once in awhile our market does bounce back. I don't think we should count on these prices, and we want to keep our pencils sharp on what our bottom lines need to look like and where we make our best profits."

(Frayne Olson / NDSU Crops Economist & Marketing Specialist) " We are getting more opportunities to price and be competitive world wide there is more interest in buying U.S. grains, U.S. Spring wheat in particular. The dynamics are starting to shift. I think the downward risk is fairly limited. But I do think we have some upside potential depending on what happens in that southern growing region." 

Olson says world wheat stocks are starting to drop.

He also says an open, dry winter throughout  Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma as well as Russia could cause some major winter wheat kill in those areas--which in turn could cause an up swing in the market. 

(Frayne Olson / NDSU Crops Economist & Marketing Specialist) "The dynamics in the wheat market, in my view some opportunity to not only price what you have left tin 2012 production, but as you get into 2013 do some forward contracting. When and if those concerns for the winter wheat crop come into play." 

Best of the Best Workshops are also being held next week in Grand Forks and Moorhead.