Competition

[samhill]

The only mechanism that promotes fair pricing and service.
Western Canada used to have it with the prairie wheat pools, and they were held responsible to the owners.
It was possible in the dark ages of prairie farming, is it possible now. Farmers have the products and are the customers for the input services. Possibly funding available with a decent prospectus.
I nominate Sf3 as chairman to initiate a committee to explore and promise to help in any manner seen as contributory.

[ALLFARMER]

I think he's busy preparing his friday fruity drink report from a tropical destination.

[SASKFARMER3]

No not yet next month.
Really we need more competition in the grain industry. What we have now is not working at all.
If were getting two dollars a bushel less after everything is deducted.
Just give us a fair price and most even I would be happy. But when a farmer can see were not getting a fair shake every single load. It gets sick.

[blackjack]

While sf3 is preparing his fruity friday drink ...ceo monsanto is saying hurry up sf3 i need a refill.

[grassfarmer]

Poor choice of a chairman samhill. Someone who will only vote PC, no matter what won't change the status quo. This is a pro monopoly, anti competition Government if there ever was one. You get what you vote for so quit complaining.

[AllisWD45]

Can' wait for SF3 report. Off ice fishing right quick here. My favorite for this outing is in a red to go cup
Fill with ice, add roughly 3 fingers Bacardi rum fill with water to the tits. Add 2or3 squirts of Nesfruita coconut pineapple blend. Its a little squirt bottle just like that MIO sugarless juice.
Then hold drink in one hand fish with the other. Works every time.

[bucket]

Here is the problem with the conservatives. They have no one to take harpers place. No one.

Most are yes men to their corporate leash holders and others have gold plated pensions now. They spent years saying they would change the status quo. Then ****ed it up worse than most of their supporters could ever imagine.

Provincially the same thing in saskatchewan. Some dummy thought up a wheat commission would solve problems and our ag minister isn't smart enough to tell some to **** off with their ideas.

It would be better to go back to a minority liberal/ndp government with some stroke from western canada. The conservatives might start listening again.

[samhill]

I believe Friday fruity drink mixing capability is a prerequisite talent for chairman.

[mbratrud]

I've heard that so much lately, I could cry. Where was everyone 1 year ago when farmer owned assets were getting sold off? WIT, PWT, GST, etc. It's so sad that the people running those operations lost sight of why they were created maybe had some vision and joined all those entities together. We all should have learned something from the failed entities like Mainline, NET and T22 before them.

That was one of the potential visions the disedent group against the sale of WIT had was to potentially Merge all the Independants, broadening the shareholder base for all increasing liquidity as well as creating a formitable compettitor without sacrificing the farmer direction. Some will say they tried that and my answer is the clearly didn't try hard enough!

We should have all learned something over the past 20 years from the demise of everything from prairie pools to indepentant farmer owned terminals.

Things that are crucial are the success of an organization is to make money and understanding from share holders that their value comes back through Increased competition and dividends and not a special deal, that chips away at the profitabilty of the company. An organization cannot be regionalized. Loyalty to what they have created is Important. Egos have to be checked at the door not everyone can have the business across the road from their farm. There has to be a way to communicate those lessons to future generations rather than give up on them.

Also the concentration of power has to be limited and structure has to be set up so the intention of the founders is never lost and can stand the test of time.

It would be a monumental task to recreate what was given up so easily. History repeats itself. If I've learned anything its many generations before me have encountered the same problems, and instead of discarding their solutions we should seek to improve them and modernize them. The pools, and independant terminals were built for a reason, and I expect the founders of those organizations were exeriencing much of what we are now in their time. I'm sure the task to create a competitor to was equally as challenging.

Ask youself, How has P&H and Richardson and other private entities lasted for over a century while everyone else around them crumbled?

Something should be done and done soon. I would love to see a public meeting held to establish a task force/ commitee/think tank to explore the oportunities to re - establish farmer ownership in entities beyond the farm gate. Not a group monopolized by special interest. Just a grass roots group of farmers not clouded be any political vantage point beyond the farm. Any thoughts on what kind of uptake there would be on something like that?

End rant....

[CptnObvious]

The wheat commission wasn't started to save us from profiteering graincos, it was started to direct farmer funded research into new varieties, agronomics, etc. like the CWB used to do before it was destroyed. They don't have the power or the mandate to market lie they did, just to invest the check off.
What ideas particularly should Stewart have dismissed? Indian Head? PFRA Pastures? Firing of the farmer elected CWB directors? Bill C-18? C-48?

[CptnObvious]

Good luck mbratrud, I'm with you but we might be lonely in a big hall. It seems against their religion for many farmers to work together.

[bucket]

I never hauled to WIT because of distance but even some dumb ass like me could see the benefit of it staying independent.

Never did understand how the guys that started it vision's could be forgotten so soon?

Probably been nothing but a gold mine or a money printing machine for ph ever since.

A turnkey elevator for what 90 million?

They didn't even get their replacement cost out of it?

[bucket]

Mbratrud and captobvious


I would be willing to come for coffee and spew briefly. Need it before seeding though.

[OneOfMany]

Yes! mbratrud agree with you 100%

The Parrish, Heimbecker, Patterson, Richardson, etc families of the grain world are all very well off. They have never had to go to the markets to issue shares to raise capital.

We pay the freight, handling, cleaning, inspection and every other expense they can think of and they throw us a few crumbs.

Oh Yeah, didnt we pay for protein testers and grain cars also.

It is very unfortunate the loss of the independents.

[bucket]

In reality WIT should have bought unit trains and controlled their exports like the new potash producers are doing.

Too bad but it's done.