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Jeffrey Carter is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and independent trader. He specializes in turning concepts into profits. He co-founded Hyde Park Angels one of the most active angel groups in the United States in April of 2007. He previously served on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Board of Directors.

Kevin Van Trump has over 20 years of experience in the grain and livestock industry. Van Trump traded professionally at the Chicago Board of Trade and the Kansas City Board of Trade, often advising some of the biggest players in the market. Van Trump recently launched Farm Direction in an attempt to help farmers improve their overall marketing efforts. In this blog, he’ll help guide you through some of the pitfalls and mistakes associated with marketing in today’s volatile markets. He will help you build and execute a plan that is right for you and your operation, while providing you with his specific marketing thoughts and current positions.

Thomas A. Grisafi is a 20-year veteran trader and member of CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, MGEX. Grisafi currently serves as President and CEO of Indiana Grain Company, LLC and is a regular contributor to Futures Line. Not a Broker, Not an Analyst. Follow me on Twitter @indianagrainco

Planalytics, Inc. is the global resource for Business Weather Intelligence – the actionable information individuals and organizations need to understand and optimize the impact of weather on their businesses. Weather is the most volatile of all external factors affecting business performance and Planalytics helps companies in a wide range of fields -- agriculture, energy, insurance, distribution and retail -- proactively manage this risk. For more information, visit http://www.planalytics.com.

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For the last 33 years I have farmed in south Oxfordshire England UK – in partnership with my wife. We have four grown up children. Our ‘downland’ farm is located in the Thames Valley on the outskirts of a village called Brightwell-cum-Sotwell in an area classified as one of ‘Outstanding Natural Beauty’. The farm has an extensive range of traditional and modern farm buildings but a limited land base which has demanded intensification and diversification of the business over the years. We have been through the gambit of livestock enterprises breeding and fattening pigs, beef at all levels and now run an early lambing flock of sheep in-wintered with straw as the base fodder, grow wheat, oilseeds, potatoes and have an extensive diversification enterprise letting traditional farm buildings as workshops. Marketing is through cooperative or group resources and we also sell produce directly from the farm-gate. My formative years were spent at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester with a post-graduate at the University of Reading and worked as an Advisor with the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and in Farm Management Consultancy before having the farming opportunity – which was never intended to be a full-time job! I am a Nuffield farming Scholar. My wife and I are very involved in our local community and with many wide ranging farming committees and bodies. Currently I am a Director of a Farm Buying Group and for the last five years have been stretching myself writing a monthly ‘Farmer Focus’ column for the Farmers Weekly Magazine one of the leading farming journals here in the UK. The aim is to have more holidays and wind down – but this seems to demand in the short term greater involvement and a winding up!

He’s a great guy.