Saudi's Wheat production dries up.

[Braveheart]

Well, I don't know much about Saudi Arabia, but isn't it mostly sand? DeSalinization of sea water for irrigation must be expensive? Sounds cheaper to buy it at any price.

[foragefarmer]

Who's going to sell Saudi's cheap grain when MGEX Dec closed at $5.20. I don't see big dollars there, do you Braveheart?

[Braveheart]

We're not selling at those prices. Are you Forage? Most farmers are smarter than that. Most I I'm talking to priced long ago or are storing.

[Flatlander]

Was offered a job in '82 to build pivots for Valley of Nebraska in Saudi. Build pivots at night due to heat, camp on site with armed guards. Water came from the ground. From what I understand those pivots are shot and so is the groundwater table. I didn't go, should have had my ass kicked for not. Take a look on google earth before they are gone. Absolute dessert.

[dmlfarmer]

It IS all about competition. We had one agency which could only sell Canadian grain to any market in the world. It has been replaced by a company which can now buy from any country in the world but whose main purchaser is only one country. Seems like we lost competition there.

Not only that but the main players left in Canada are also multi-national players who can also source grain from a multitude of countries to meet a sale.
They really could care less if they sell Canadian wheat or Australian wheat or South American wheat - what ever they can source and transport to the buyer cheaper. Sure there is more competition but that competition is actually not over best price farmers can get but rather who is willing to sell the cheapest to meet a multi-national sale.

No question there was lots wrong with the Board and it did limit competition within Canada and movement into the US. But neither Canada or the US markets can absorb all the grains grown in North America. And we definitely have lost competition in the global market with the giveaway of the Board to the Saudis.

[Braveheart]

Well there's the CWB mentality. Even Australian and South American farmers are stupid and sell cheap. Doesn't sound like any Aussies I ever met.

[dmlfarmer]

Braveheart, why do you think a grain company will ever pay more than what they have to? Do you honestly think farmers have more pricing power than the grain companies have? If my neighbors are willing to sell their grains for less then I am the company will buy their grain first. I either sell at the price they are offering or I go someone else or I store and hope that as supplies decline the price will go up. Even when I contract grain in the spring for harvest delivery I am still a price taker of the price the company is offering for a specified delivery date. If what I want is more than what the grain company is offering it is likely I will not be contracting with them.

[Braveheart]

It's too bad you feel so powerless dml. I'd say I was sorry , but I just don't care. Farmers that can't take control of their own destiny, the ones that just don't get it, will fall behind.

[foragefarmer]

Braveheart if nobody is selling as you say, why is the world price of wheat so cheap and MGEX has been stuck around the $5.00- $5.20 range for so long? Somebody is definitely selling somewhere!!!

[farmaholic]

Not enough Producer's with the right kind power. Financial power... How many can honestly play the "wait them out game"? Lot's of low hanging fruit gets picked first, then hopefully there is still demand for the "harder to pick stuff", its a chance you will take.

What held canola prices down last year... steady farmgate sales. At the end look where prices got to. Wash, rinse, repeat...