Continuing Education

After a week at the beach, we left Venice and headed to the Orlando area.  Brock Associates had their two day Winter Ag Symposium at the Radisson Celebration Resort.  On the way, we stopped at the Gamble Plantation and toured the antebellum mansion and grounds.  It is the only surviving plantation house in South Florida.  It was once a 3500 acre sugar cane plantation with sugar mills.

At my meetings, I met farmers from all over the country, and it was interesting to compare notes on the drought, land prices, and other ag topics.  The nationally known speakers were good, so I hope I can use some of what I learned.  Mostly these meetings help broaden my horizon and give different perspectives.

We flew home on Allegiant direct from St. Pete/Clearwater.  We were in the air 2 hours and 6 minutes, and then we were in Peoria!

Home for a couple of days, then Monday I attended the Illinois Soybean Profitability Summit at ISU in Normal.  It was my first time to attend this meeting and I was impressed with the speakers and information.  On Tuesday I attended Earlybird Fertilizer's annual Grower Meeting.  Again, a lot of good local information presented by our partners there, plus market and financial information by Bob Utterback.  Of course it was followed by a ribeye steak lunch.

Tuesday afternoon we braved the snowstorm and headed north into Chicago.  Fortunately neither the storm nor the roads were as bad as predicted.  We stayed at the Buckingham Athletic Club Executive Hotel in the Loop.  We immediately knew we were out of our league when we checked in and realized that everyone we saw coming and going were in black suits with white shirts, or tuxedos!  We definitely looked like hicks (and probably acted like hicks).  I dressed Business Casual, but we quickly realized that business casual in downtown Chicago is black pants, dress shirt, black dress shoes, and a black trench coat when outside.  Not khakis and a blue shirt like downstate.
Our room was on the 40th floor looking directly at the Chicago Board of Trade with its statue of Ceres, Roman Goddess of Agriculture on top.

I was here to attend CIH's Hog Margin Management Education Program.  Two full days (Wed. and Thurs.) of intense learning how to manage margins using futures and option strategies.  Tuesday included a visit to the Board of Trade and the Mercantile Exchange.  Despite the dramatic increase in computer trading, there is still a lot of open outcry that takes place, especially in the options pits.  It is fun to watch a large room full of adults shouting at each other, the hand signals they use, and the colored jackets they wear to identify who they trade for.

On Tuesday night we had Giordano's famous Chicago stuffed pizza for supper.  On Wednesday night we met Matt and Lena at The Italian Village.  Matt was in town for a commercial real estate appraisal class (the women shopped while we men were at our meetings).  I once again ordered my favorite dish - the Frutta Di Mare Linguine.  It is fresh mussels, squid, clams, scallops, and shrimp in a zesty tomato sauce over linguine.  I was not disappointed!

Thursday night it was McDonald's on the way home.  Now it's back to normal life for us!

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
II Timothy 3:7