Game Time

[cottonpicken]

O.K just for fun lets play a game.

I know how hard it is to keep threads on track.BUT....

You are the CWB.

What do you do at this moment in time.

Forget about your own emotions.

Deal with present day realities.

Apparently a few board members read this site,and by some accounts higher food chain marketeers.

[parsley]

Using smarts, I'd give up barley. Open market.

A vote on wheat right now, would probably give a majority to Choice.

Board support is steadily deteriorating, whether or not they want to admit it.


The markets are getting very specific, and business needs to focus on, and target certain raw materials. The CWB can't even get the deer poop out of the shipments yet. Encouraging establishing specialized markets and stepping away from any meddling in them is a must.

The pressure from farmers will continue, stronger, and more vitriolic. Difficult for staff to work with the people you are supposed to serve, if they downright despise you. I'd try to get the "single-desk issue diluted and work towards getting grain offerred from choice growers by running a good business operation. There are some good enough staff.


The CWB has actually torn the farm community apart, and pitted group against group. Hardly a model for being a good partner, so I'd try to reach out.The CEO needs to tell the farm Directors to clamp their political mopuths shut, and simply do good business.

You asked, cott!

Parsley

[charliep]

Not sure on your question cottonpicken. My answer is I would continue to sell. Part is the good price. Part is ensuring that transportation capacity is being used at port (note the press release on CN today) and adding addtional sales into the US. Part is meeting the needs of long standing customers who want the grain/are paying high prices to get it.

I would examine how I handled risk. Managing risk across a year long pooling period is crazy. I would look at things like shorter pooling periods. I would separate the wheat excluding durum into the different classes. I would consider a wheat CashPlus.

Even more radical, go to cash pricing. A grain company has a relatively easy method to manage risk. In their position report, they know how much grain they have bought from farmers. They know how much grain they have sold customers. The grain company manages risk for difference between purchases and sales. Why wouldn't the CWB do the same thing ahead of harvest?

[btjadenlepp]

i'm off topic here, but let's talk about that CN news release today. it came out after the 'Country Elevator News' cheekily announced, to the select few on its list, the suspension of the 08 futures pricing option.

i subscribe to 'The Bulletin', and i actually read it. presumably they send them out when there's something they've done that farmers need to know about.

so ward decides that a new 'policy' of CN's is more important to us than the news that you can't hedge your new-crop wheat at $11/bu anymore? like who cares? i'm sure the policy is interesting for those who like to study the impact of railway programs over the long run, but what about the majority of us who have chewed off our fingernails trying to decide when to lock in some new-crop wheat in this environment?

we, if we're lucky, hear about it in the updates the CWB sends to elevators. with no explanation, no quotes, nobody to contact for more detail. interestingly, at 4pm today, when we called the producer payment options department to beg for mercy, were the first to contact the board directly on this issue.

you might have had an easy go of it this afternoon but make no mistake, cwb - this is going to cause an uproar, especially if futures continue to drop. nice try burying the news, but you're not off the hook that easily. there's real money on the line here, today, and it doesn't care about jibber-jabber, smoke and mirrors and pointing fingers. there's nobody else to blame here but whoever's sitting at the risk management desk unable to handle these markets.

[cottonpicken]

Jesus christ

a cwb question and only pars and charlie answer.Tom is probably busy and Sask is for sure busy-everybody else looks yellow.

This is what i woud do

-open the books
-make it volentary
-market all crops
-take a fee off number of bushels sold
-start pro-active mandates against railroads and ag companies and governments

I reserve the right to change anything in the morning because i just drank 12 beer