single desk comments 4 yrs on in aust

[oneoff]

chuck:: Is there any remote possibilty of reversing the trends you now see? Remember a trend must first be stopped , before you can possibly start retracing the changes that have ocurred. And would you be amongst the first to quit expanding; start producing affordable food; and stop taking tax payer and fellow farmer's profits that have possibly been diverted into others bank accounts.

[hedgehog]

speaking as an outsider looking in, it seems to me that the CWB has hastened the demise of the family farm as it seems to be a tax on production, where only those with deep pockets survive.
Contrast that with EUROPE where subsidies have maintained family farms where owner occupancy prevails, but in landlord dominated areas like the UK, family farms have disappeared at a faster rate, and the cash flows directly to lord and lady landlord.

[Hopperbin]

Hedge maybe you can give a better description of how that system in Great Britain works in another thread.
How does the subsidies go to the land lord? Seems a little wrong, but in a way even though any support payments here go to the actual farmer the land lord gets his share in the end because of the bids for the land.

[gregpet]

Charlie and Larry, I think those are two of the best posts ever put on this site. Doubt chuck comes back
with anything.

Wasn't it always the claim of the CWB that small farms will disappear without it when in reality this has
been happening under their noses. This is just one of many fear tactics the CWB uses without any
validity to their arguments.

[Hopperbin]

Chuck I am very disturbed at your first post on here, talking about farmers becoming workers instead of land owner I believe how you say it.
I know a lot of relatives that have rented out one quarter or maybe 4 that they used to subsidize their incomes from working not on the farm, they took careers off farm. Most times years ago these plots of land were given to them and the extra income was a pretty good help to them. Land rent was pretty low at one time don't even know what it was but could actually purchase a quarter for 10 grand so rent could not be very high and purchased land was some times paid for in one year in some years past. Farms got bigger. Unless you want farmers and land owners to be poor how would you stop the progress. We are in an industrial age. The more competitive you are at business the better off.


One other thing, I think you comment on the size of Australian farmers, they became that way because they needed to be competitive. Their land and crops are not the same as we produce here. As far as I know seems they have a lot of failures there much more than we have. Would you suggest working with a 15 foot planter and a 30 year old thrasher is the way to go?

[oneoff]

Gregpet; Nah chuck is back with more propaganda on a new post on Viterra ripping off farmers in Austrailia. He/she brings that point to our attention to build up personal brownie points in support of retaining the CWB single desk. Until he/she comes clean with the real reasons for such strong personal support of self-interest, we will never know the real story behind bad mouthing Walmart; swaggering neighbors; lucky kids; longing for the perfect old days and whatever he/she truly believes in.
I still suspect that such people do not live by the words that they use.

[oneoff]

It's time to bring up Rod Flaman's classic rant on "raging masses"; "suffering neighbors" and the CWB benefits of seperating a quarter million dollars from a durum farmer who would only have used it to buy another quarter of land out from under someone who needed it much worse.
Where is the widespead outrage against the personal dreams of free enterprizers (and chuck et al) to expand, prosper and make another buck?
Anyone got Rod Flaman's classic rant handy?

[LWeber]

talked to a farmer yesterday whose durum went 70 bushels per acre. On 2000 acres the gross revenue is $1,750,000.00.

I have heard similar stories around Kindersley and Swift Current of durum that went 50 bushels per acre. Now that is only $650,000 for a thousand acres but in that case the lentils and canola took him well into the millions as well.

I hear all the time here on angryville the time people like Saskfarmer bitching about the CWB because he can't get $17.00 for his durum and he blames this on the CWB.

In the case of a few rich farmers who can sit on all of their grain while the raging masses sell out early perhaps Saskfarmer has a legitimate argument. Perhaps we did cost him $5.00 per bushel on his durum. Perhaps it ran 50 bushels per acre and perhaps he had a thousand acres. And perhaps he could have earned an additional quarter of a million dollars.

I could argue that this is a zero sum game and that on the flip side there is another farmer that could have had the same 50 bushel crop on the same acreage base of 1000 acres and he could have sold his durum for $7.00 per bushel and for that farmer we made him an extra quarter million dollars. I could argue that for the health of the community it is better that the second farmer is able to pay down his debt and remain a constructive player in the industry and the community while poor Saskfarmer was prevented from expanding his farm by another section. The section that farmer number two may have sold after making his decision to sell his durum at 7.00.

But it is not a zero sum game. In fact we know that the CWB is asking $22.00 per bushel for durum today when the US elevator price reported here on Agri-vill is only $17.00. Now those elevators will sell your durum for $22.00 if they can get their hands on it.

So we see that for starters the CWB is keeping about $5.00 per bushel out of the handling companies pockets and putting it in farmers pockets right now.

Further we know that the average weighted selling price of durum in the US according to the North Dakota Wheat commission is about $10.00. This is further proof of the value of the CWB. The CWB has added to the bottom line of Canadian farmers on a 3 million tonne program an extra $73.00 per tonne or $220,000.00.

So yes the downside is that we kept Saskfarmer from buying another section of land where he might next year make enough extra money to buy out another suffering neighbor who had to sell a section to Saskfarmer.

The upside is that the Ag industry in Canada made an extra almost quarter of a BILLION DOLLARS.

And that is just on Durum.

Wait till you see my analysis on Spring Wheat and Malt Barley.

Rod Flaman
CWB Director - District 8
306-771-2823
rodflaman@imagewireless.ca

Oh and by the way. The CWB Rocks.

[oneoff]

The fact that the CWB Board of Directors didn't see this as a violation of its Code of Ethics speaks volumes. And yes, at the time, it was pointed out to the Chairman's secretary; and a request was made to have this alleged violation considered. Has anyone heard what the board's decision was regarding appropriate punishment and distancing the CWB from such an inappropriate attack.