My Experience at the C to C

[lnewman]

My agenda was to find younger progressive farmers at the C to C who supported the board.
There were many farmers representing all regions of the prairies. Not long after being there I
could sense the “east – west” thinking. What is with the Alberta – Sask border and the CWB, it
is like a different country.

I met 3 younger farmers with their background being the following:

1. 20 miles NE of Regina – 6000 Acres

2. North of Moosomin – 3000 Acres and Custom Sprayer

3. SW of Winnipeg close to the US Border – 3500 Acres and Custom Sprays (Father/ Son
establishment)

I asked various questions to the above farmers. They all said that they were board supporters
but were on the fence. They were not sure but still voted for the board.

Question 1. Why are you on the fence?

1. Dad has always voted for the board and it is just easier.
2. Dad wants a free market and Grandad loved the board. I like it because I am busy
spraying and one less thing for me to do.
3. The neighbors vote for the board and I have no real opinion.

Question 2. What do you do for cash flow?

The all said, “ Sell canola”!

Question 3. What is the difference of selling wheat vs. canola, they are both commodities and
maybe if we didn’t sell all of our canola in the fall we wouldn’t flood the market?

All three farmers responded with silence. After a few moments they all basically said they do
not want the Viterras and Cargill’s of the world profiting from our wheat.

When they could not answer a question they would all go silent. If I didn’t change the topic
they would not talk any longer. They are great people but they need leaders. Speaking of
leaders, Wow what a group to leaders… two of which had their own personal agendas. One
was on roundup ready wheat and the other was concerning producer cars. Instead of the
bigger issues which pertained to the CWB. I can go on and on, if you would like to ask me a
question I will respond. One last point, all farmers I talked to said that Barley should not be
part of the CWB.

[TOM4CWB]

Inewman,

Thanks for your report.

Much appreciated.

Our work

has,

Just begun.

[silverback]

Ask them what percent of their seeded acres are board crops.

Ask them why they can market other crops every day of their lives, but cannot bother with the other 20 or 30 %

Ask them how they can believe that the Cargills and Viterra of the world are not making money off their wheat tonnes right now. The cwb pays them more per tonne than they make from their canola tonnes!

[mbratrud]

Did you ask your 3 friends how the meal was? I bet they would have had an answer for that.

Did you learn anything about the CWB that you liked?

[lnewman]

I am back home now and that was a recap of my time
there.

Silverback I asked them all those questions as well and
what do you do with silence? They have no response.

[lnewman]

When its free, course they liked it . We should charge $
500 to recoup some of the costs Its only fair to rest of
board members ! I did like cwb employs they were
good But who knows direction they well get from this
new bunch directors ?

[Ron]

Thanks for you time going there and your
feedback to us.

Screw the CWB

[bucket]

Any talk of the mess in durum?

[lnewman]

There was no mess. But they are getting a
premium in some key markets

[bucket]

No mess?

Storing the best crop in a decade to have it sold off board, then the cwb paying a million dollar demurrage bill because they could execute a sale they made in june and could not find the durum for six weeks.

No mess, so you got a taste of the koolaid, did you?

Just asking, they screwed the durum market and durum producers royally!!

[charliep]

How did the CWB define a premium? I assume a better price than
competitors with similar quality wheat for sale on the same day but
need to be confirmed. How do they separate single desk selling on
behalf of western Canadian farmers benefit from perhaps the ability to
provide better service and a higher quality crop based on the whole
supply chains contribution to effective logistics and quality control?
Perhaps the premium is based on more than the CWB.

Did they address the issue of the higher prices in the US versus
Canada. Will note the highlight put forward in Agriville is this is to be
expected given the US larger domestic market. Selling a premium all
the time in world markets should offset some of the advantage the US
has with a larger domestic. US exports 50 % of their wheat production.
Canada 70 %.

[lnewman]

Premium from what i gathered was higher price .
Kicker is, over and over they talk about Japan Premium
market .Cwb says we produce 23 million tonnes on
average 6 million goes to premium markets. Not one
word about how they dispose of the remaining 17
million . This year we are short grain for these
premium markets Major concern?

[bucket]

And their answer was?

You were there, did you not ask a question?

Although I know what the cwb answer would be as I have been to those things. Just wanted to know if you end up as frustrated as I do.

[charliep]

Japan imports about 1.25 MMT of Canadian wheat out of total imports of 5.7 MMT. Put into percent terms, Japan represents about 8 % of Canadian wheat exports.

Domestic feed consumption ranges from 3 to 4 MMT. Seed 1 MMT. Domestic flour milling 3MMT.

[dirtgirl]

I am disappointed but not surprised at your findings. Socialism is deeply entrenched in Saskatchewan. I can say however, that if you had attended the c to c alumni conference last year, you might have met me - a 30 something Saskatchewan farmer who believes in marketing freedom.