Who needs the CWB?

[chaffmeister]

Sure, but why would you?

In a completely deregulated market:

- you would get better market signals on all crops

- to pay your bills, you could sell a little wheat, a little canola, a few peas - whatever looked the best at that time

- all crops would need to compete for deliveries, so when wheat prices look good, you sell wheat.

- if a crop gets more deliveries than the system needs, the basis adjusts - just like if not enough is being delivered, the basis adjusts the other way. (It's a proven fact that price is the best method to ration the supply of grain handling services)

- you could take advantage of carrying charges in the market that would actually pay you to store grain - any grain

- you could respond to differing market signals to move the one that makes sense. When canola is paying you to store but wheat isn't, you could actually move wheat and store canola (instead of being forced to store wheat and move canola like you are now)

- you would have a more efficient system so that the prices you got were more realistic in comparison to other markets (like the US) - in other words, more money for your grain.

Total grain marketing would have a greater impact on your bottom line than just canola marketing. There would actually be things you could do to maximize your returns that you can't do now.

[rbgordon]

Barley Poll
The barley poll question conducted by the Southwest Booster.

Should the federal government remove barley from under the control of the CWB?
Currrently at 11:20AM Feb. 5
Yes: 80%
No: 20%

Had been as high as: 93 - 7

You can register your vote by going to:
www.swbooster.com

[chaffmeister]

Two days ago wilagro said he had only voted 3 times.

Wonder how many times he's voted now.

[wilagro]

chaff: Your're a riot. The vote is now 79/21. I just voted again and got the stats.

[charliep]

Perhaps should review the CWB survey.

See page 17.

http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/farmers/surveys/producer/pdf/survey_062107.pdf

Will be interesting to see the results of the 2008 survey.

[chaffmeister]

I guess I'm not as computer savvy as you. After I voted once, whenever I log on it tells me the results but I don't get the opportunity to re-vote.

Maybe you know someone....

Even so, with all your extra voting, the results are still way in favour of choice.

How many times do you think you'll have to vote to get it to go the other way?

[TOM4CWB]

Chaffmeister,

Interestingly the morality of 'single minded' growers... is to protect a bankrupt immoral system... any method is acceptable... because the moral and ethical high ground does not exist in the first place.

There is no respect for individual rights... or individual responsibility...

So voting 10,000 times is considered as 'smart' and acceptable... if they can get away with it without an obvious personal penalty to themselves.

[parsley]

charliep,

Wouldn't it be interesting to have a chart of the erosional decline of CWB support over the past decade?
What would you estimate would be the desertion rate? 2% per year? Bet this year will be high.

I note that regarding the survey you linked, that the results reflected the opinions of the "general population" as well as farmers!

What % would it be? Farmers 2% and Citizens 98%? Geez.

Parsley

[charliep]

Not sure on your comment on Citizens versus farmers. The survey is based on permit book holders. Demographic make up (ages, farmsize, location, etc) is in the main report.

Looking forward to Calgary next week!

[wilagro]

parsley: Finally, you hit it. The survey is too wide open to the public at large with NO controls in place to ensure fairness and accuracy.

If another survey was done, I would like to see it restricted to ALL farmers capable of growing barley in western Canada, whether they have a current CWB permit book or not.

And Tom4CWB, save your morality lesson. I'm not a newbie and your morality is no better than mine.

[charliep]

wilagro

Encourage to read the survey yourself. Permit book holders only (page 2 powerpoint).

You should note that Alberta farmers in the survey preferred market choice for wheat (page 10 of the powerpoint). The margin is even bigger for barley (page 17 powerpoint). Last spring the two question vote was a toss up for barley.

Highlight again that farmers had farm tech had moved to the new open market world on barley. The questions and frustrations were focused producer pricing options on wheat.

The question is whether the CWB is up to the task of adapting.

[parsley]

Saint wilagro, you must attend the WBGA in Calgary, and join charliep and I, as we will be kayaking, with abandon, in the waterslides.

Parsley

[farm_boy]

Wilagro - good suggestion on the new survey idea. Sounds exaclty like the one from last year. It was called the barley plebiscite.

[TOM4CWB]

Wilagro,

Now there is a challenge!

So you promise to never force any "designated area' wheat or barley grower... ever... into selling to the CWB or the "single desk" against their will?

I will take back everything I just said... if this is truly your position... and you will publically state this Wilagro!

NOW...

What exactly is your position on the CWB "single desk" Wilagro?

[TOM4CWB]

Wilagro,

What exactly did you mean... when you called me a 'Newbie'?

I may be a little slow... but have been on Agri-ville since the beginning of time... it seems!

"Newbie is a slang term for a newcomer to online gaming or an Internet activity. It can also be used for any other activity in whose context a somewhat clueless newcomer could exist. It can have derogatory connotations, but is also often used for descriptive purposes only, without a value judgment. The word "Noob" is commonly confused with the word "newbie". A noob is a person (no matter how experienced) that acts like an idiot, while a Newbie is a new player."