Learn and use crop marketing skills in a crop marketing simulation designed just for Iowa!  The 2022-23 Iowa Commodity Challenge gives you a virtual 2022 crop of 75,000 bushels of corn and 25,000 bushels of soybeans.  You decide when to sell using cash, futures, options, cash forward contracts with harvest on October 19 until March 22, 2023.   The markets are real (cash, futures, basis and options), storage costs accrue and you learn by practice! 

Example market strategy players will also be competing – can you beat them?:

  • Diverse Marketer uses a variety of tools
  • Harvest Seller unloads at harvest
  • Crop Storer has goals and ownership costs
  • Futures Buyer sells all at harvest and buys futures to replace
  • Call Option Buyer sells all at harvest and buys options 

You will be able to track how they do on the leaderboard that ranks results. 

To Join:

1. Please use this quick registration link: https://tinyurl.com/IA202223  

2. Please click the “Join Commodity Challenge” button, register including creating your own password, then you will be automatically added to the 2022-23 Iowa Commodity Challenge.

3. The game password you will need is IA202223

4. You are now registered and ready to play 2022-23 Iowa Commodity Challenge.  The simulation will always be listed on the front page under Active Games.  

The Simulation

1. You begin with 75,000 bushels of corn and 25,000 bushels of soybeans from the 2022 crop that you must market by March 22, 2023.

2. You can use futures, options, cash forward contracts (January or March delivery) and cash transactions to market your crops.  Cash transactions are based on the market in Alleman, Iowa (north of Des Moines).

3. Selling cash bushels cannot be done until harvest on October 19, 2022.

4. After harvest, storage costs begin. Corn: 5 cents/bu./month; Soybeans 9 cents/bu./month.

5. All marketing actions must be completed by March 22, 2023, when the game ends.

6. The marketing choices you make in the game are entirely up to you.

7. The game allows you to experiment with marketing tools under real-world conditions.  The prices in the game are the prices currently available in the market.

8. If at any time, you need assistance with the game, please see the “Help” section of the Commodity Challenge website or contact your game leader. 

Reentering the Commodity Challenge game

Go to www.commoditychallenge.com Enter your Email address and the password you created and click the “Sign In” button.

For more information, contact Zach Brummer, Iowa Farm Bureau, Farmer Education Program Manager (zbrummer@ifbf.org).