Making Markets
Episode 7 Harvesting Alpha through Farmland
Making Markets

Episode 7: Harvesting Alpha through Farmland

Making Markets

Episode 7

Harvesting Alpha through Farmland

Brandon Zick is the CIO of Ceres Partners. We cover the economics of farming, the compelling case for investing in US farmland, and how Ceres Farms manages it's $1.4 Billion portfolio.

 

(00:02:05) - (First question) - Appreciating the benefits of a farm upbringing

(00:03:26) - Segmenting farmland across the United States

(00:09:04) - Locating farms on the market

(00:11:39) - Realizing profits from farm ownership

(00:15:57) - Assessing the farmer population

(00:18:57) - Confronting bankruptcy risks in farming

(00:25:01) - Comparing operational and sales expenses

(00:30:41) - Exploring the niche sector of farm funds

(00:32:36) - The particulars of livestock investments

(00:35:41) - Identifying crops with the lowest returns

(00:38:08) - Navigating the farm acquisition process

(00:47:12) - Strategies for risk diversification in agriculture

(00:50:23) - Understanding turnover in the farming sector

 

Harvesting Alpha through Farmland

Introduction

Eric
My guest today is Brandon Zick, the CIO of Ceres Partners. Brandon grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania before here on a Wall Street for over a decade. In 2010, he returned to his Agrarian roots at Ceres, where he manages a $1.4 billion fund that invests in farmland. In this episode, Brandon gives us an in-depth look at this unusual asset class, including the demand and supply dynamics, the economics of farming and how they choose which farms to invest in. Please enjoy this conversation with Brandon Zick.

Eric
Brandon, thank you for doing this today.

Brandon
Yes. Thanks for having me, Eric.

Eric
You grew up on a farm. I think you might have been the first friend I've made that actually lived on a farm. And when we started talking about it, I started to learn so much about what it's like and the economics and the value a family has in a farm. Maybe a fun place to start would be what it was like to grow up on a farm and what you learned about the value of it.

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