Marketing Freedom

[sumdumguy]

Chuckie, do you not remember 4 bushel quotas to receive 5 bucks a bushel in a year and a half?

[stonepicker]

lot's of room for improvement with the rr's, but didn't cn and cp move over 20% more grain last year , over the last 3 year avg.? Biggest crop in western can. history, farthest from salt water than any country in the world. Like parsely said somewhere else, this country is still a good place to live, and we live well.

[Hopalong]

In the earlier years of the Crow debate, farmers resisted any increase in statutory grain shipping rates.
Hopper cars were being introduced and RRs said that due mostly to inflation they could not justify investment without higher rates.
Box cars were becoming less and less efficient and there were grain movement difficulties not unlike today.
Answer from CWB and governments was to buy hopper cars and keep freight rates low.
Later, as inflation continued, government introduced the crow subsidy which had defects including favouring export of bulk grains over value added, trade compatibility and expense to Cretien government.
Maximum revenue entitlement was introduced, with grudging acceptance by RRs, but there are unanswered questions from RRs whether regulated grain revenue will be competitive with revenue from other sources.
Another question is who will pay to replace a worn out hopper car fleet.
Through it all, grain shippers have seen incremental increases in rates.
As long as inflation persists and is encouraged by our governments think it is dreaming in technicolor to think that grain shipping rates will not increase.

[farmaholic]

http://www.railcan.ca/rac/presidents_message/home/2014-11-25?year=2014&month=11&page=1

and Todays Financial Post as well.


Nonetheless, this past winter, both CN and CP set records for moving grain. CP moved 16% more grain than ever before, a record which will hold for a considerable amount of time. Railways make a decent return on grain and we would have moved grain without quotas being set.


"Railways make a decent return on grain" from the spokesperson himself.

[wmoebis]

Does anyone know what happened to the freight incentives for loading unit trains? It was designed to be passed on to farmers for hauling extra miles to load 50 and 100 car spots.

Are the elevators still getting that? Is any farmers getting any of it? Maybe it should be given back to RR as a incentive.

[Braveheart]

Wmoebis, I think there was a change to freight rates with removal of the CWB monopoly. The structural change would have eliminated the incentives and allowed companies to use basis to attract grain (here we go again). I'm not sure about this though. Someone else might offer more concrete help.

[chuckChuck]

When farmers gleefully gave up the CWB they lost power when it came to dealing with the railways. Who is speaking for farmers with any substantial clout now? Nobody! Competitive transportation is the key to making open markets work better and we don't have that. Harper Ritz, and Raitt are not interested in doing what is necessary to solve the lack of competition in transportation. And the next government will be even less interested. So except for a few price increases due to shortages caused by drought or other production issues, get use to selling your grain for less than the real cost of production alot of the time. Because you are captive to the grain companies and the railways. So what are you going to do about it? Keep telling yourself how wonderful marketing freedom is? That will help a lot.

[Braveheart]

I'm not captive to anyone. I have a phone, the internet, a truck, and yes marketing freedom.

Most important, I have the will and ambition to use all the above. My strength is my independence.

[blackpowder]

While your revising history, make sure you remember your beloved _ _ _ had 3 generations to make things wonderful.

[HFL]

Chuck, you think we had power over the railroads before. I've been farming for 40 years. The only time the RRs were not a problem was when we were droughted out and there was no grain to ship.

[jdepape]

Multicar incentives are still in place. Instead of discounts off the single car rate (which they used to be), they are simply better rates for shipping trains.

EX:
Aberdeen SK to Vancouver (CN)

0-49 cars
$4,329/car (48.10/t)

50-99 cars
$3,981/car (44.23/t)

100 cars
$3,633/car (40.37/t)

Under the CWB regime, you would see these better rates work down to the farm through trucking premiums. Now, like Braveheart suggested, it's in the basis. And - you will see premiums being paid from time to time for quick delivery - you could say this is another way for the better rates get back to the farm.

[ado089]

Joe, do you have access to the current oil and container tarrifs for the same route? Dave if you're around I know you can pull them.

Thanks

20% over the 3 year average? Is that the same 3 years we saw 3-12 million acres lost annually to flooding and multiple times that shit the bed from being too wet? Nothing like setting the bar low. No one expected the whole crop to move last year but the inconsistency and dog ****ing from October to April caused a lot of damage, not just financially but also to our reputation on the world market.

[dave4441]

I don't have access to oil rates but I think a rail car to gulf is similar cost as a hopper car is to the gulf, about $12000/car. It's only a short haul to the border for CN or CP. Oil is only about 3 percent or rails revenue and grain is 15 percent plus intermodal and container grain frt which is likely small dollars.

[chuckChuck]

So if the current marketing system is working so well why are there so many complaints here on agriville and in the coffee shop? And why is there such a range of prices for the same grades and excessive basis. Posted cash durum prices in ND are around $14 USD and offers in Canada around $10 CAD in the last 2 weeks. Somebody is taking excess profit.

[oneoff]

Some have always confused their use of the former CWB. There were organic users who paid a relatively small fee and had access to world markets. There were registered seed growers who basically had an exemption for their main source of income and could sell to anyone in the world......


and then there were the vast majority who were captive to only the CWB for their sale of wheat and durum production.


Now; with full personal disclosure; guess if some of those full CWB supporters from the former groups should be revealing all the ways that they benefitted at other's expense for some decades.

There can be unidentified greed and self interest in some lines of propaganda and personal relationships.