proposed Alberta Wheat council Left meets Right

[parsley]

Charliep, you'd most likely advocate a
government agency for regulating daily-sex
checkoffs if it meant funding for govt depts.
What is blogging, wd, I'll bite. Pars

[charliep]

On the wheat commission side, it is industry that is asking - not government driving. There is a process for having a new commission established in Alberta. As indicated, will be lots of discussion.

[FarmRanger]

The GRDC Australian model isn't refundable. I
wouldn't be in favour of this. If it's refundable
(voluntary) it will be accountable.

Sure there is always the freeloader who will
benefit from the funding of others, but that is still
preferable to the development of bloated
unaccountable bureaucracies that inevitably
results from forced participation.

[rockpile]

I agree with Ranger, that to be legitimate, it should
be voluntary. But Charlie, I have a question. No
doubt farmers benefit from research and market
development. But from my many years of
observation, processors and consumers are the real
benefactors of this investment - better product,
cheaper ingredients, cheap, high quality products.
So why does the primary producer always pick up
the tab when the benefactors are many? And yes, I
know Govt invests as well but that commitment has
been shrinking every year for decades now.

[FarmRanger]

The GRDC Australian model isn't refundable. I
wouldn't be in favour of this. If it's refundable
(voluntary) it will be accountable.

Sure there is always the freeloader who will
benefit from the funding of others, but that is still
preferable to the development of bloated
unaccountable bureaucracies that inevitably
results from forced participation.

[gustgd]

Not sure what to think of all this.
that's why I posted here. to get input. Some of you have opinions I value.

Agree that there are probably too many meals and mileage types out there. but the alternative is that some crops might get sacraficed to king wheat.
Barley folks are already up in arms over thoughts that HRSW gets all the money.
Layers of admin and staff are always a worry, but also thinking issues in cereals some are similar but some are complete outliers.

The further you go "professionalizing" directors and having them spend more time in the board room the less time they are in the field.

I would lean to different working groups under a cereals commission, but strong proponent of term limits.

I think that research/market development/ policy....... are too important to be left to volunteers and donations.
Open to suggestions.

Last guy to advocate non-refundable but think there should be someway to reduce free riders.

[charliep]

Will note there are lots of other elements to R&D other plant breeding. Reduced tillage. Seed placement. Timing of operations.

Within plant planting, there are also other things than yield. Consumer traits. Disease resistance. You can add on.

What would the malt barley opportunity be in Canada if the only variety available was Harrington (sp?)?

Are diseases like fusarium, rust, UG99, an issue? From a plant breeding perspective, is there a need to stay ahead of them/seek resistance at some level?

From a competitiveness standpoint, are advances in wheat yields keeping up with other crops (i.e. canola)? Is Canada keeping up with wheat yield improvement in other major exporting regions? Does Canada need to be investing more money on developing higher yielding mid quality wheats?

If the answer is yes to some of the above, then where does the money come from to do this?

Will note Alberta farmers will have their say on the wheat commission. From an outsider, I suspect the 70 cents/tonne investment leveraged to $7 to $10/tonne in final research pays far better than the inflated land values/rent talked or the payments for new paint/fancy equipment. What you put in the seed drill has to pay for this. Are cereals carrying their weight financially?

[charliep]

Realize the discussion is about the structure of the organization and accountability. Also nothing wrong with moving to a completely private sector driven model where things like plant breeding are privately financed and paid for using things like end use levies/royalities. Done in Australia and Europe. malleefarmer attempted to get a thread going on this topic but nobody responded. I would pay attention to this. This may be where western Canada is going.

[URL="https://www.agriville.com/cgi-bin/forums/viewThread.cgi?1317618579"]Australia[/URL]

[charliep]

rockpile

I notice your question on productivity and profitability.

Won't like my answer but western Canada is only a small part of the world pricing equation. A 1 or 2 million (even more) shift in Canadian production will not really impact internatinal prices all that much. Wheat is a commodity. To improve profitability, you have to grow more, reduce costs or do improve price per unit by differentiating our wheat/capturing more value.

The education from the current crop year is Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan are the drivers of commodity wheat prices when they have crop. High quality in a year of high wheat production in western Canada means we compete with the previously mentioned new exporters by selling Cadilac wheat to a Malibu wheat market in a world that will buy Lada's for the right price.

If you look at yield improvement in western Canada, we are lagging most if not all the other wheat producing regions of the world. Western Canada is loosing its competitiveness. Not about feeding the world as parsley will chew me out for but rather making money in a new world.

[rockpile]

Hi Charlie, actually I think your response is right
dead on. Lots of folks here crow about the cash
prices across the border in ND and Montana, but
that is the worlds premium market where 80% of
production is used domestically. But for our
customers, 60% can't afford the cost of protein and
nutrition at those prices. So another question.
Relative to our competitors, like Russia, etc. are our
input costs way overboard and therefore restricting
production and innovation? Are we subsidizing agro
business so our competitors can access those
products more cheaply? I don't know, just
wondering.