Archer-Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM - option chain) shares are rising today after the Department of Agriculture lifted its corn production estimates and lowered its corn price estimates. The news is good for ADM since the company is a huge consumer of corn. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on ADM.

ADM opened this morning at $26.34. So far today the stock has hit a low of $26.04 and a high of $27.25. As of 12:30, ADM is trading at $27.09, up $0.75 (2.8%). The chart for ADM looks bullish and S&P gives ADM a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bull-put credit spread below the $22.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 22.0% return in just four months as long as HANS is above $22.50 at September expiration. ADM would have to fall by more than 16% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

ADM hasn't been below $25 at all in the past year and has shown support around $25.50 recently. This position could be risky if the demand for corn-based products, especially ethanol, starts to wane.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer (no known relation to the Archers of ADM) owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in ADM.