High HRS and Durum prices a Myth in Western Canada!

[SASKFARMER3]

Since We farm in Western Canada I would like to give the rest of Canada some insight into what farmers are actually being paid for their product in Western Canada. Every day we here News reports how the high price of grain is driving up every thing from Bagels, Buns, donuts bread cereals etc.
Well in the CWB controlled world of western Canada a farmer is paid a Initial price for his product. This is based both on what the CWB feels is fair and the Federal government.
Then through the year (August to July) the price is adjusted from their.
When the CWB feels that farmers should get a increase based on sales data to that point they ask the Federal Gov to increase this price. The Feds look at various factors and finally OK the increase then a month later the Checks for the difference are sent to Western Canadian farmers.
The CWB once a month comes out with information on how they are doing and what a farmer should expect to receive for his product in the end.
The grain is called by the CWB and farmers have to deliver to inland terminals. Grade is judged by the elevators and CGC.
The CWB has opened up a few things for pricing but they control how each of these programs work.
Now yes farmers can purchase their grain back from the CWB. The cost this year is in the $14.00 range for Durum that the CWB says they will get about $13.00 for in the end. The farmer after paying this amount to the CWB can ship his own grain to the USA and sell for $20.00 plus.
This system is only forced on Western Canadian farmers. Farmers in Eastern Canada don't have this kind of system.
IF a farmer tries to sell his own grain to a US elevator he risks Jail and confiscation of his trucks.
Now on our farm we are 50% sold on our HRS and Durum. The CWB says I should receive up to $8.97 for My HRS #1 14.5 protein wheat. For my Durum the CWB says I should get for a final close to $12.75 for my #1 14.5 Durum.
The US price today March 2 For my HRS is $16.75 and Durum is $20.00.
The loss on just the Grain that I still have left is close to $587,400.00. That is the Difference from what I could get today and What the CWB is projecting I will get.
Barley hasn't even been calculated in this factor.
So why are western Canadian farmers MAD. Its simple having no control of your product but are responsible for all costs.
But our Federal Liberals and NDP feel this is a OK system. Hm if they can Control One group who could be Next. Maybe you the Voters of Ontario and Quebec. Wouldn't you like to receive 1/2 your wage up front (but your still responsible for all taxes etc) then throughout the year your boss and Feds will decide how much extra you will get paid and then a year later you will here the week before Christmas how much that is.
See what happens and how these groups will do anything to keep control of Voters.
HELP FREE US>

[rkaiser]

Arnold, Arnold, Arnold.

[CodFather]

Someone care to tell this report the truth of the matter?
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/308530

[SASKFARMER3]

Snappy snappy what do you you mean.

[SASKFARMER3]

I think you know SF3!!

[parsley]

Lead. Follow. Or get out of the way.


Ritz bucked words off his tongue, only to have them climb up and get on again, so they would have to be bucked off again.

I loved it, if it wasn't so sad..

The important thing that happened was that all bronco-words, just like Goodale's, just like Alcock's, just like Easter's, the whole lot of them, all serve to alienate farmers, one from the other.

When farmers fight, the CWB employees grab the cash, the EA's in the Minister's office grab the cash, and farmers are left with the Government proclaming themselves as the peacemaker.

How many single desk farmers and choice farmers actually spoke with each other?

Farmers have more in common with each other than either does with the guy who manages the spa at 34 Main in Wnnipeg, can we agree on that?

Parsley

[parsley]

Canwest Writer, James Wood, noted that Ritz urged the crowd to fax and call opposition MPs on the issue.


Good grief. We've done that for years! What are the MP's doing? Getting tattoos instead of making certain support was shored up for the bill?

Wood also said:

Quote

"However, the parliamentary schedule is so busy that the earliest the legislation would come before the House of Commons is April, said the Wascana MP, Saskatchewan's sole Liberal MP." UNQUOTE

The Governments lead farmers down the garden path, nude,except for wearing a money-belt, and farmers have been trusting yokels.

This bill could have been introduced two years agio, but instead, it will rise like last-minute yeast until April, and then the batch will have to be thrown out because the Parliamentary kitchen closes for the summer.

"Do it again", farmers whisper.

Do you want to do it again? Do you want to keep following with your wallet?

Or do you want to take the lead?


Parsley

[cottonpicken]

Told ya.

Wasn't harper, preston mannings economics guy?

Wasn't their platform smaller government?While releasing the largest budjet ever.

Gun control?

Income trusts?

If i was a betting man-oh wait i am,

The next boon doggle will be a 'NEW ENERGY ACCORD" within 18 months of a conservative majority gov.

Ontario to the newfs will need a whole new support plan funded by the west.

I'll give you even odds with a 40oz of vodka being my end.

[SASKFARMER3]

pig pig pig. Why is it when a farmer wants to get ahead he is taken down by the rest. Why is it wrong to succeed, Have we been in the basement for so long that we don't even recognise prosperity. Or is it a deep Chip on our shoulder that we have.
Common Snappy which one.

[parsley]

Be fair. That's almost like you wanting to bet a 40oz of vodka that it is going to snow next winter.

Instead of betting, how about doing something.

Oats got out of the monopoly and I don't hear anyone clamouring to get back into the monopoly. You want back in, cott?
Organics doggedly pursued a privileged buyback and enjoy it, while conventional farmers pay through the nose.

No reason why barley can't do either one.

Waiting for Ritz to is hard to imagine.

Isn't proactive better? Where do you think organics would be if they had waited for Strahl/Ritz?

Yup. Still payin.


Parsley

[stubblejumper]

Sask3 you only piss people off when you try to take the money out of their back pocket. Get ahead all you want just don't be a pickpocket.

[parsley]

One organic farmer got ticked at the CWB and this was published:

CWB Policy Penalizes West and Favors East

My name is Kirk Torkelson and I farm with my wife, Ila at Beaubier, Saskatchewan. Our 1500 acre mixed-farm is certified organic, and we run a 60 cow herd. We also have off farm jobs. Our four children are grown up and are off the farm with good careers . It has been a struggle the past ten years on our farm. Governments have been telling farmers to diversify and we have responded, from farming methods to increasing cattle herd and now to organic farming. It's time for the Canadian Wheat Board to diversify too, and stop being the bully in the system and start supporting the Western Canadian farmer.


In Nov/ 2002 I found a market for my organic HRS wheat through a company in Alberta for export to the USA. This company informed me I had to go to the CWB and buy the wheat. Previously, I sold wheat to other companies, but they handled the buy-back themselves. I was a rookie at buy-backs for organic grain and I trusted the CWB to handle the procedures, so I sold and then bought back, (a PDS), my wheat from the CWB.

The total amount of wheat in the PDS was 76 tonnes and I paid $1430 upfront to the CWB when the sale was made. For my own wheat. All the amounts were based on CWB's actual figures: the CWB PRO ($296.90/mt); the CWB estimated final spread ($314.67 - $296.90 $2.00 admin fee) and the CWB’s own estimated interim and final payments ($118.10/mt ). It was understood that the payments to come would cover the buy-back costs and that the $1430 payment was to cover the final spread. The CWB determined all the estimates; I was unable to do any negotiating in any way.

Thirteen months later, because of CWB incompetence, I received a bill from them for $4630. The total cost for the PDS/buy-back/export license now becomes $6060 out of my pocket. An Eastern organic grower making the exact sale puts an extra $6060 into his own pocket. I was in shock because the CWB is asking for approx. 30% of the gross income from my grain sale and all they did was issue me an export license. I marketed the wheat myself, and because the CWB cannot sell into my special market, I am not taking sales away from them. I do not want them to begin marketing organics either.

The CWB is being unfair to Western Canadian farmers because if I were an Ontario organic farmer, although I would still need a CWB export license, the CWB would just issue me one without having to do a buyback. Neither would I pay a $2.00/tonne administration fee. I would bypass Board pooling the same as the big feed mills and seedgrowers across Canada do. Discrimination against western farmers by the CWB must stop.

I want the Directors of the CWB to be decent enough to instruct the CWB's Licensing Department to issue no-buyback licenses to Western organic farmers in order to provide me with the same privileges as the Eastern Canadian farmers enjoy. With these outrageous costs to ONLY Western organic farmers, we cannot have a level playing field and we cannot compete with the Eastern organic farmers who have access to a no buy-back license. As well, only Western farmers also get stuck paying the total bill of the Wheat Board's national licensing costs.

Organic farmers applying for export licenses who want to bypass CWB pooling can be easily accommodated simply by granting them no-buyback licences. Organic farmers eager to remain in the conventional CWB pools can continue to go through the buyback in order to remain in the pools. The CWB already allows conventional farmers the option to market their grain outside the pooling accounts through programs like the fixed price and basis contracts.
I am asking the CWB Directors to tell the CWB licensing department to grant no buy-back licenses to those certified organic producers who request one. If the CWB is prepared to help producers, this could be done right away, without changing legislation, and without cost. If not, I can no longer trust the CWB and no longer want to do business with them

Kirk Torkelson, Box 57, Beaubier, Sk, S0C 0H0, Ph.306-447-4520, kirk.tork@sasktel.net

___________________________________
The CWB hates being dragged through the press. COMPROMISE,in the air, maybe?
Parsley

[parsley]

Well, if there is anything the CWB, and especially little Kenny Ritter dreads, it is being dragged through the National Post mud

Quote


Inorganic wheat board
By avoiding the Canadian Wheat Board and selling their own organic
wheat, Western grain farmers could earn more, while taxpayers saved millions

Carol Husband
Financial Post

Thursday, March 04, 2004


Kirk and Ila Torkelson farm organically at Beaubier, Saskatchewan, and like all businesses, it's challenging.

In Nov. 2002, two truckloads of
Torkelson's wheat headed south for the American organic market. He needed the sale. If Torkelson lived in Ontario, he would have been granted the required Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) export license, but CWB policy denies licences to Western farmers.

CWB policymakers use their licensing division to funnel grain into the CWB's Marketing Division, where it is pooled.

For Torkelson to legally cross customs, he needed to sell both loads of his wheat to the CWB and then, be damned, buy back the same two loads of
his own wheat from the CWB, coughing up a tidy $1,430 payout to it in
the process.

The CWB legislation, itself, doesn't specify this buyback requirement
for getting a permit, but the CWB bureaucrats do.

By having to sell his grain to the CWB, Torkelson was automatically plunked into the conventional CWB system, one which eats up Western organic farmers' profits, gives them a price based on a formula meaningless to organic farmers, and prevents them from competing with their Eastern
counterparts on a level playing field.

Out West, organic farmers want to be added to the CWB's privileged licensing list, which includes Eastern growers, kamut wheat growers, big
corporate feed mills, seed growers and others.

Each is automatically granted export licences, each bypasses CWB marketing and pooling, each downloads its licensing costs on the West and each puts the cash in its own pocket.

Adding organics to the privileged list is logical because the CWB can't even market organic grain since global organic markets require the CWB seller to be certified organic, which it is not.

The CWB was so confident in its selling ability during the 2002 bullish grain market that it actually predicted, in writing, that the CWB's
payment system should get Torkelson what amounted to a preliminary
$8,900 payment at the end of the crop year.

The CWB's communication's machine -- a $2-million farmer-funded operation -- was in full gear in every media outlet and farmers were inundated with the likes of CWB analyst Peter Watt, boasting, "... the wheat board is in the driver's seat in terms of where we market the grain, when we market the grain and what price level we market the grain."

Prices were high and grain seemed scarce as CWB elections appeared on a
sunny horizon. But the CWB pulled out of the hot market.

It should have spent more time
marketing and less time going to Liberal fundraisers with tickets paid for by farmers, because the market dived and the board ended up selling into a falling market and swallowing a huge deficit, but not before it took a bite out of Torkelson.

Thirteen months after his buyback, Torkelson received a second dun, or
demand for money, from the CWB for $4,630, increasing his buyback cost
to $6,060, or 30% of the gross income from his sale, with the only service being rendered was to issue an export licence.

When his plight became public, the CWB claimed it was Torkelson's own
fault.

The CWB's organic marketing specialist (who doesn't market organic grain nor do organic farmers want him to), went after Torkelson in the Western Producer newspaper saying: "It appears that he wasn't following the pool return outlook and he wasn't keeping abreast of what the market was doing. If he had done that, he would have been more aware."

There was absolutely nothing Torkelson could have done. He had done
business according to the CWB's terms.

The CWB's actions highlight the pitfalls of dealing with this government agency.

First, you can't trust the CWB's figures and projections to determine whether the buyback is affordable -- the second dun proved just how bogus the CWB's own figures can be.

Second, although CWB experts stopped selling during a bullish market and although CWB profits turned so sour that the CWB ended up begging the federal government for $85-million of taxpayer's money, Torkelson -- the managing expert on his farm -- knew enough to sell into his niche organic market when prices were high;

third, it reflects the CWB's attempt to download the blame for their lacklustre selling on to the backs of farmers who are critical.

Torkelson wasn't alone in suffering at the CWB's hands. Organic producer
Cyril Stott of Brandon, for example, calculated that he lost $13,500
from his 2002 crop in the bottomless-buyback-hole. These kinds of losses
happen all the time in organics, but you don't hear about them.

No less important, but often overlooked, are the organic sales that are actually lost. Dwayne McGregor farms in Chaplan, Sask., and he blames
the CWB's high buyback as a contributing factor behind his lost sale to Japan. Arnold Schmidt near Maple Creek lost his sale to the U.S. because of the CWB.

Even though organic buybacks are gouging profits, strangling Prairie
sales and stopping contracting, the CWB continues to withhold licences.


Eastern Canadians and other countries then seize the Western farmers'
lost economic opportunities.

Most CWB directors refuse to acknowledge the disadvantage that Western organics face. The truth is clear to others, including the Western
Barley Growers, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Standing Committee
of Agriculture and Agri-food, Agri-core United and the Grain Growers of
Canada.

All have adopted policies supporting marketing choice for farmers. The Alberta government is also firm in its stance for equal marketing choice opportunities.

Economic hurt is embodied in Western
alienation, and until each Westerner has the same economic opportunities
that Easterners enjoy, resentment will grow.

Is there a solution? Yes. Organic farmers have provided the CWB with an
instant, no-cost solution. The CWB could simply grant export licences to
Western organic farmers, the same as it already does for Eastern farmers
and others. No changes in the legislation are required.

Carol Husband is an organic farmer in Wawota, Sask., and a member of
Organic Special Products Group, a voluntary, self-funded association of
organic grain producers that advocates marketing choice for farmers. © National Post 2004
_____________________________________


Conventional farmers should add one teaspoon of testosterone to their cereal every morning for 4 days, and then write a plan.

Some of you claim to be professional farmers. You need a plan.

Parsley

[parsley]

Stubblejumper,

You prefer jailing people in order to can get a percentage of their cash.

Now there's a class act.

Parsley

[silverback]

What is your definition of pickpocket stubble?

If the cwb is the shining example of how to run agriculture, I guess you would be happy to send me a cheque for my portion of your lentil or chickpea crop this year right?

Don't forget one for every other farmer out there.