CWB wants to import CHEAP EU Feed Grain?

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

The CWB had a conference call this morning, wanting to bring in screening pellets from Thunder Bay and Vancouver, at net prices more than what they are offering for CPS and Malt Barley...

Doesn't that top it all???

But there is more...

The CWB Director in charge told the call the CWB was looking at importing European feed grains, cause they could bring those in cheaper than they could get the screening pellets...


SO the question is...

What is the job of the CWB???

Is the Livestock influence so strong on the CWB Board of Directors... that looking after livestock is more important than selling our grain at a decent price... so we can afford put a crop in next spring???

What is the Job of the CCA ACC..., does the C in CWB mean Cattle???

Where do these directors get off at... What do they do at their meetings, other than beat up on Jim Chatenay...,

Why do we have a grain marketing monopoly, if there true colours show their real purpose is actually, in there base purpose and actions, to lower our returns for Wheat and Barley???

Do Farmers actually deserve to go to jail, for opposing CWB actions when the CWB works "on our behalf" to destabilise our grain prices and drive them lower?



Did I miss something???

What is fair Charlie, Lee, Chaffmeister, and yes Thalpenny???

[TOM4CWB]

Thalpenny,

Mr. Ritter, your fearless chairman said;

"The CWB is a marketing agency that works to maximize farmer returns from the marketplace but we take a stand on issues when they prevent the marketplace from working the way it should. When you have people competing against you who are getting as much in public dollars for their grain as you are from the marketplace, there can be no doubt that there’s something fundamentally wrong.

It’s all the more ironic, then, that the same people who are skewing the market with their huge subsidies are also the folks who turn around and take aim squarely at our grain industry in Western Canada. It’s clearly a case of the pot calling the kettle black when the same American lawmakers who work to launch trade cases accusing the CWB of unfair trading practices vote for billions of dollars of added spending through the US Farm Bill. Among the many other challenges that farmers faced in the past crop year, none was more irritating than the on-going trade harassment by certain American politicians and grain industry officials. In the ruling that the US Trade Representative brought down in February, the Americans were again unable to find grounds to slap tariffs and import quotas on Canadian grain. But they continue to annoy and investigate and threaten us because we’re good at what we do. Because the fact of the matter is, we’re not dumping grain, we’re selling it at a premium."

Thalpenny, take one look at the Portland Cash prices... Today at

http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/9/9/29906499.html

THE PRO numbers are not even close to any of the cash barley on wheat Portland values...

Isn't the CWB forcefully selling our 2002-03 crop at subsidised "Monopoly" "Single Desk" prices, cause we "designated area" grain producers don't have a choice in who markets our grain...

WHO keeps the CWB accountable, when it is obvious you are more concerned about the livestock producer and domestic millers than you are about your "designated area" slave producers???

A CWRS 13.5 buyback price @ $245/t and the PRO at $228/t, how can this be anything but the CWB extracting a premium ONLY out of "designated area" wheat producers...

And when you skew the wheat sales values lower, then our Crop Insurance values are recked as well...

And this is Maximising my returns???

[ianben]

The cheapest grain appears to be in the Ukraine at the moment so I believe.
Dragging UK prices down again. If I was running a feedlot in Alberta I think I would be checking out the logistics.
I sure wish someone would buy it as our grain trade uses it to price our grain with no desire to buy.
Ukraine want hard currency and will sell at any price for $$$$$$.
I cant see it is a job for the CWB though, but it must be in the grain farmers long term interest your cattle industry survives in the best possible way.
Will no cattle and good 03 harvest will see me blameing Canada for cheap grain prices???

[charliep]

I'm not going near this one.

My only comment is that we need to deal with the issues here as a farm community. Grain and cattle guys need to get together to examine all the alternatives. The local market for feed grains is paying more money that than any of the export markets for high quality grain.

Based on having access to all the grain produced in western Canada we have more than adequate grain/energy supplies. Protein supplies (i.e. soybean meal) are likely to be in surplus by this winter (lots of soybeans/crush driven by vegoil).

Roughage/bedding is the problem. Does anyone still have one of those old chaff wagons to pull behind a combine.

[cowman]

I thought the CWB was supposed to be an agent to sell grain for farmers in the designated areas. Not a social agency! It is not their role to play the lone ranger and come riding to the rescue! What will they save next...Medi-care? It must be totally frustrating to have your marketing arm do everything possible to ruin your markets. Just goes to show you who the CWB really represents and answers to. Not the grain farmer but the federal government! Lets have no more of this drivel about how it is a farmer driven agency.

[cowman]

Tom4cwb, I was on that conference call you refer to. It's amazing how these things get twisted!!

The Director who was involved in the call did NOT propose that the CWB would be taking possession of screenings to sell back to farmers. He was responding to a request to explore if the CWB could assist in coordinating the movement of screenings on a backhaul into the country, which came out of a CFA meeting. The conference call you refer to was to present the idea to farm orgs and offer some coordination assistance.

The issue of importing cheap feed grains from other countries was not that the CWB would be importing grains for sale into Canada, but rather identifying that on a landed Sask. basis, grain could be procured from the Black Sea area competitive with or perhaps slightly cheaper than current feed values.

Tom

[cowman]

Oh yeah, to respond to the PRO question - Tomrcwb knows that the PRO is an estimate of final returns over a 12 to 15 month period, and that there is lots of volatility right now. PROs are estimates of final returns to farmers, and do not reflect cash trading values on a spot basis.

This crop is not in the bin yet, and volumes and quality are still up in the air.

Tom

[cowman]

The conference call was with members of farm orgs who participate in the Crop Loss Coalition, and there were about 8-10 orgs represented that day. The questions were put to the farm orgs for their consideration.

Tom

[parsley]

thalpenny,

Who were the farm organizations that comprise the Crop Loss Coalition and which ones participated in the conference call?

Parsley

[charliep]

Tom

As we both know from being right in the middle of the drought area, this years crop 2/3 of average (if we are optimists). CWB projections from yesterday are accurate. Alberta is 2 to 3 mln tonnes lower on feed grains which will either be imported as US corn or taken from the milling wheat/malt markets.

Just a comment on screening/mill run. We need to have extreme caution on anything we bring in both in terms of fusarium/weeds. Likely we won't bring in crop from off shore but similar concerns need to be expressed there.

In this environment, it is critical the CWB get accurrate pricing signals to farmers so they can make good decisions. The need is there to get mid month PRO forecasts out if the situation has changed significantly.

The question. Given what we know today are the current PRO an accurate reflection of what likely total payments this year? Given what I know about the process, the sales plan the CWB is likely to have and current prices, I have trouble reconciling current PRO forecasts.