WESTERN PRODUCER — A couple of Fortune 500 companies are expanding their Canadian crop marketing services.
StoneX Financial (Canada) Inc., a subsidiary of StoneX Group Inc., has launched its Farm Advantage mobile app, which provides growers with market data and intelligence.
Meanwhile, Bayer CropScience has bought Combyne Ag, another Canadian crop marketing management app formerly known as FarmLead.
The StoneX app is free and provides growers with market quotes, futures pricing, option premiums and historical futures charts.
It contains market analysis from StoneX analysts around the globe and commentary from the likes of fertilizer analyst Josh Linville and chief commodities economist Arlan Suderman.
Cash brokerage bids are available for specialty crops that have no futures markets.
BAMWX provides 36-hour and 10-day weather forecasts factoring in more than 65 weather models. The weather service includes spray forecasts and live radar.
StoneX clients can access their real-time positions, cash balances and statements and use a “back of the napkin” profitability calculator.
There is no ability to execute financial trades on the app, but the company hopes to add that feature and others by the end of the year.
Cassie Adolf, senior vice-president of energy and agriculture with StoneX, said the app is an attempt to appeal to young farmers.
“They want to be able to track the markets on the go,” she said.
They also want to be in control and place their own trades rather than relying on brokers.
“They like to do things themselves,” said Adolf.
Bayer said its purchase of Combyne is part of a broader effort to support the increasingly digital management of farms.
The idea is to link Bayer’s grain production management tools with Combyne’s grain marketing management tools.
Combyne will continue to work as a standalone business unit with an independent brand, software, customer data and team.
“The added resources and investment capabilities now available to Combyne will accelerate the build-out of many new features suggested by our users,” Combyne chief executive officer Alain Goubau said in a news release.
There are no plans to integrate Combyne in Bayer’s Climate FieldView platform, but it will start to appear in other on-the-farm and off-the-farm software.
StoneX’s first foray into the Canadian market came nearly a decade ago with its No Risk Commodity Markets market advisory program, which has attracted more than 90 clients in Western Canada.
That was followed in 2019 by a cash brokerage business to provide more price transparency for growers.
“In Western Canada, the price discovery on (special crops) has always been a pain point,” said Natalie Benjamin, senior risk management consultant with StoneX.
Adolf said the Farm Advantage app was first released in the United States in March 2022, where it has attracted about 2,500 users. The hope is to add another 2,500 in Canada by the end of the year.
