Big markets can make big moves so we thought it was time to circle the wagons with some experienced traders and hear their perspective on where we are headed and how to best play the opportunity as a spec and a producer. Enjoy the fireside chat! 

David Parker, Professional Trader at Olam – David is a graduate of Harvard University and a 40 year veteran of agricultural markets working the commercial side of the business with the likes of Continental, The Andersons, Ferruzzi, and Nidera.

Big markets can make big moves so we thought it was time to circle the wagons with some experienced traders and hear their perspective on where we are headed and how to best play the opportunity as a spec and a producer. Enjoy the fireside chat! Accept our apologies in advance on the background noise. We recorded the conversation on Friday afternoon and think a couple of us were already kicking off the weekend:) 

Joel Ross began his career in Wall St. as an investment banker in 1965, where he handled public offerings, mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and other corporate advisory matters for a variety of clients. During the seventies he was CEO of North American operations for a UK based conglomerate where he acquired and oversaw six companies. He also sat on the parent company board. In 1981, he began his own firm handling leveraged buyouts and investment banking, as well as financing real estate syndications. In 1984 Ross began providing investment banking services and arranging financing for real estate transactions with his own firm, Ross Properties, Inc.

In 1993 Ross and a partner, Lexington Mortgage, created the first Wall St hotel CMBS program in conjunction with Nomura. They went on to develop a similar CMBS program for another major Wall St investment bank and for five leading hotel companies. Lexington, in partnership with Mr. Ross established a hotel mortgage bank table funded by an investment bank, and making all CMBS hotel loans on their behalf. These were the first capital markets financing programs for hotels to be created since 1989, and it reopened Wall St to the hotel industry.

In 1999 he formed Citadel Realty Advisors as a successor to Ross Properties Corp., which focuses on all types of real estate investment banking. This includes raising equity, mezzanine capital and debt for individual properties as well as entities, and advising individuals on the formation of new entities for which he then raised the equity funding. In addition to the US, Citadel has arranged the financing for numerous office and industrial transactions in the UK and Paris. He has closed over $3.0 billion of financings for office, hotel, retail, land and multifamily projects.

Mr. Ross was co-master developer for a 240 acre brownfield mixed use development in Sacramento, CA., while continuing the investment banking practice in New York. He was also a founder of Market Street Investors, a brownfield land development company. Mr Ross is also involved in the acquisition of notes on defaulted loans and various REO assets in conjunction with several major investors.

Mr. Ross has served as an expert witness in eight court cases testifying on debt structures, interest rates, markets and development. He was an adjunct professor in the graduate program at the NYU Hotel School. He is a member of Urban Land Institute and was a member of the leadership of his ULI council. In 1999, he conceived and co-authored with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Hotel Mortgage Performance Report, a major study of hotel mortgage default rates.

Mr. Ross is a graduate of the Wharton School and served two tours in Vietnam with the US Navy.

Listen in as KVT and Benson Hill CEO, Matt Crisp talk unfiltered about the future of agriculture, some of their favorite investments, new books they are reading, and how they are collectively working to bring premium crop opportunities to growers across the U.S. This is a great conversation with the CEO of the most talked-about ag-tech startup in the industry.  

Benson Hill recently closed a $150 million Series D funding round led by Wheatsheaf Group and GV (formerly Google Ventures). The company’s leading food innovation engine CropOS taps nature’s genetic diversity to develop and commercialize healthier and more sustainable food and ingredient options that benefit farmers, food companies of all kinds, and ultimately, consumers. This funding round accelerated the food-tech company’s efforts to deploy its platform technology, expand partner development across the supply chain, and scale product commercialization efforts.

The funding round attracted diverse investors recognizing the company’s strategic business model and potential including Argonautic Ventures, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Emart, GS Group, Louis Dreyfus Company, iSelect Fund, Fall Line Capital, Mercury Fund, Prelude Ventures, Prolog Ventures, S2G Ventures, and additional strategic and family office investors.

Benson Hill leverages Cloud Biology®, a discipline combining the power of data science, machine learning and AI techniques with plant biology and genomics. CropOS is the platform that makes this discipline actionable, significantly accelerating the precision and speed of product development. Benson Hill’s technology platform and collaborations empower the creation of healthier and more sustainable feed, food and ingredient options that consumers are seeking, while also delivering strong crop performance that farmers demand. 

 The group talks about their current and longer-term investments and outlooks. Topics discussed included the current agricultural markets, what’s happening on Wall Street, investments in precious metals, cryptocurrency, real estate, energy, and more. This is a great conversation that you don’t want to miss. We start talking more ag market specifics later in the conversation, so make sure to stick around!

Emily is one of our good friends and considered one of the absolute best in the business. If you have any money invested in agriculture this is a must-listen. As usual, Emily delivers and provides some very interesting insight. I am truly blessed to know so many smart people and happy that I can share. Take the time and listen to her thoughts on prices moving forward and her overall global perspective of agriculture. We all have to guide our own ship through these waters but it’s nice to get a look at someone else’s map who regularly travels to other lands and sees things from a different persepctive than our own backdoor. Take the time and fully digest this one!

Kevin Van Trump and Andy Daniels host a roundtable discussion with their sons Jordan Van Trump and Drew Daniels. Both Jordan and Drew trade and invest, so the topics of conversation are very interesting and offer differing perspectives. 

The discussion starts with current thoughts on the ag markets and how the group plans to play their hand into 2021. The topics then move to other outside investments, such as stocks, gold, land, guns, bitcoin, etc… There are a lot of interesting thoughts and perspectives shared that make it worth the listen. Hope you enjoy.

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

NEW “Highly Volatile” Zoom Call:  Farming, Food and Conversations About Our Future with Mary Shelman, Carter Williams, Travis Potter and Kevin Van Trump. This is one you don’t want to miss as I speak with Mary Shelman, Founder at the Mary Shelman Group and Advisory Board Member at Village Capital; Carter Williams, CEO at iSelect Fund; and Travis Potter, founder at Tractor Soda.

This is one you don’t want to miss as Jordan and I discuss the current grain markets, what’s happening in Bitcoin, the shift towards a paperless money world, post corona thoughts, Thanksgiving turkey news, AgSwag updates, and current investment ideas.

NEW “Highly Volatile” Zoom Call: Corona, Crop Prices, the Election, and Investments with Tom Willis and Greg Beck. This is one you don’t want to miss as I speak with Tom Willis, CEO at Conestoga Energy; Greg Beck, Senior Vice President of the Grain Division at CGB; and Andy Daniels about some hot topics of debate. Overall, we will be discussing our latest thoughts on the upcoming election, crop prices, how coronavirus is popping up again, and current investment ideas.