Alberta Farmers offended by CWB...

[dnach]

Henbent, you have lost any credibility that you may have had. I have been reading most of these posts with great interest and one thing is clear, you have avoided all dierect questions challenging CWB policies. Why? Let me tell you, Parsley and Tom are not some wild rednck fools looking for cheap feed, they are simply challenging CWB activities and as producers we should have that right.
I farm in North West Sask. and so it is just not "cowboys" from southern Alberta" who want change, we are all over Western Canada.
Buy the way, non-boad feed barley is more expensive in southern Alberta than anywhere in the world. Eliminating the CWB would do nothing to feed barley prices, what fool would even sell feed barley to the CWB, look at the volumes.
Come up with some logical answers for Tom and Parsley and maybe your posts might have some credibility, you must work for the CWB, or have been brain washed because you will not defend the CWB with logical reason.

[henbent]

TOM4CWB et al,

First chaffmeister, I concede that you are correct, England is still importing Canadian wheat. My baker, must have meant that his company is to cheap to use fine Canadian wheat. GMO concerns are effecting North American sales in Europe, correct?

As for the rest of you characters. Lets get this straight once and for all, I am not seeking your blessings. If you don't think what I say is valid or credible, I don't care. It is hard to preach to the fallen. Having said that I pose this question to you guys. You are sitting in your office/bedroom/den or combination thereof in front of you computer, seeing and gathering information? You have the illusion that in the real world you can make a difference. You can market your own fine grain via the net internationally. Here is a piece of advice, first of all you are getting info from the MISSINFORMATION HIGHWAY and you are not a player on the world scene. You would have to depend on and pay brokers to complete a deal and they don't work for FREE. My broker is the CWB, they aren't FREE either. For gosh sakes, its been my experience that my neighbour the COW GUY down the road, is slow paying for feed he has bought form me. At times Small Claims Court is involved to collect. World scale marketing from home, yeah right!!

[henbent]

dnach, Here is another theory that comes to mind, TOM4CWB,parsley, and kernel are a group of brokers who feel that trashing the CWB will increase their business. Hence they point out the flaws in the current system and create general chaos. Nobody, not you or I or the CWB, hits a home run everytime at the plate. Heck I bet throughout the years even TOM4CWB, parsley and kernel have made mistakes. Well maybe not the kernel!!

[JACKFLASH]

henbent: There isn't any room for mistakes anymore. We have to hit the long ball. The CWB doesn't have to. Or if they do stike out,it's out of our pocket not theirs.

[TOM4CWB]

Henbent;

VERY GOOD point on marketing mistakes...

If I make a mistake... I am responsible and pay for this mistake.

When the CWB makes a mistake, and continues making more mistakes...

Are you Henbent willing to pay the cost of the CWB mistake on my farm?

This is the real issue.

I hopefully learn from the school of hard knocks... with blood sweat ad tears the cost of my mistake.

A CWB mistake is covered up by the great pooling account blanket... we just wonder why we normally end up a dollar a bushel short each year... with nothing to do but hope the mistakes aren't repeated over and over..,

too bad this hope is misplaced...cause until someone has to pay personally... it is very seldom that change is created to mitigate the problem that created the mistake in the first place.

Hence the CWB refuses to cash price... or else we could uncover CWB mistakes... then the CWB would be required to become accountable.

Even more serious to the CWB convenient pooling concept is real competition... because then any mistake becomes as visible as fireworks on a clear night!

Is it any wonder why the CWB refuses to offer modern risk management tools... when these tools themselves will prove the CWB is ridden with major accountability problems?

[henbent]

JACKFLASH, TOM4CWB, So the only mistakes that are made on your farm are made by the CWB? You fellows are going to hit a homerun each and every time. REALITY CHECK TIME it isn't going to happen guys!! I am leaving town for a few days and don't have a laptop or an extremely long cable connection to keep in touch, so have fun, feel free to solve all farm problems, by trashing the CWB. How about those gas prices, as high as 89.9 in some places and it comes out of the ground beneath our farms. Free market at work. Go figure!!

[Dyno]

Hi guys I just read through this thread, wow what a bloody embarrassment for so-called southern tier farmers, this claim they subsidize the northern farmers. I am in the south, and trust me, you guys up north, some of these ill-advised comments (see kernel), do not represent southern producers at all! We are all in this game together, the moment we start pitting north against south within the borders of this country we might as well all give up. Just curious Tom4cwb, you have no livestock, you don't seem to have an off-farm job to make a go of it with all the time you have to reply to threads, your family has been farming the same land since 1881, are you one of these guys that "big daddy" gave the whole operation to? You must be, that is the only way someone in your position can make a go of it these days, alas the rest of us have to work 12 months of the year!

[TOM4CWB]

Dyno;;

My family has been very supportive to me, I will gladly tell anyone this fact.

We have built this multi-generational farm, with co-operation and hard work...

A life long commitment to the land, my family, and my community... has rewarded all involved in our farming operation... we together have built strong community relationships that add up to a business that everyone wins through good hard honest work... and by being blessed as we bless those who we are given the strength to help.

THis is why I KNOW the CWB can do so much more.... because by working co-operatively together I have seen constructive generation of wealth... creating a win win situation for everyone.

I concentrate on our farm marketing and risk management... and have spent my time where my heart is... in the dirt, and with my neighbours in the good times and sad times...

I hope this means I am not a lazy bum... if this was the message you were getting too...

Even if this is your opinion... I will still work till I can work no more... to improve marketing options for my friends wherever they are... and always believe concious informed choice is better than being a drone... as I believe this is the essence of being alive as a human being... a creative state given to each person... by our creator!

[JACKFLASH]

Dyno:
Yes Apologies are in order if I ruffled a few feathers. After I got a post secondary education, Daddy told me to get a job, so the nearest job that would allow me to farm and work. Was the oil rigs, which I did for 9 yrs., until a boomer chain decided to knock my knee cap off. Then I decided to use my head and worked for Monsanto for 6 yrs, until last May when the commitments of farm and family. This the first winter in 16 years, I have not worked a winter, so in the meantime we have doubled the cattle herd and tripled our land base.
I have worked with people all over western Canada, and have friends from the Peace to southern Manitoba. I know what people can grow,and market and buy.
I only pointed out a few irregularities that I see goes on at the farmgate,but I guess I got told to stay on the porch, so I will stand aside.

[TOM4CWB]

Henbent;

In my opinion, every marketing decision that makes a profit for my farm, is a good marketing decision.

When I sell to the CWB, through the pooling accounts, I know I am leaving my decision to the CWB, and am not seeing a real transparent price, plus seldom can I build a transparent relationship with the party consuming my product.

Selling my farm production is part of a risk management strategy, so why can't I be making a good decision, every time, if I understand what I am doing?

I am not saying I get the highest price every time... but does the CWB get the highest price all the time?

I can prove the CWB system many times sells my grain for less than fair market value... Henbent... take a look at CWB barley marketing for one second!

Earl Geddes told us that this crop year the CWB called each farmer that sold feed barley to the pools... and basically them they must have made a mistake... that they could get much more money selling to the non-board domestic market!

Since the CWB knows, for a fact, that they are a disaster in marketing especially feed barley... and that many folks got more for feed barley than for special select Barley... am I supposed to take it, that I am to be a drone, and believe all CWB marketing is fair and maximising my returns?

AM I not to judge the CWB by the fruit of it's actions... which have been falling PRO's after some of the highest PRO's in history... with practically no volume to sell...

Mr. Earl Geddes told us in the CWB Red Deer Meeting that the CWB had contracted less than ONE 25,000 tonne boat load of CPS this crop year!

Yet the CWB PRO on this miniscule CPS purchase has gone through the floor... and the CWB has yet to accept more than 25% of my CPS!

I am supposed to believe this is effective marketing management of my risk, and timely sales of my grain?

[henbent]

Dyno, Wow, you said a mouth full. It appears at times that common sense is truly lacking on this thread. Some of these fellows, feel that they have an advantage over the rest of us poor folk and are will to do whatever it takes and grind us into the ground so they prevail. No, I will not go quietly into the night and become part of history. Smoke and mirrors do not make a marketing system.

[TOM4CWB]

Henbent;

You just wrote...

"Smoke and mirrors do not make a marketing system."

Think about this for just a second...

You believe in a "single desk monopoly" that only takes from "designated area" farmers... yet must compete against other marketers who sell wheat and barley... and this CWB has decieved you into believing that with a 5% market share... the CWB can extract a premium and tell consumers off if they don't like the CWB's price.

The CWB directors have been told... and Know that this "market extraction" power does not exist... that the CWB must compete against everyone else in the world for a sale... including the Ontario Wheat Board... without any help from the "CWB Monopoly"... as the customer will buy from someone else if the CWB does not bring it's price down.

SO the only person the CWB has a monopoly over is you Henbent... and the "Henbents" of the world allow the CWB to justify taking the property of their neighbours... with out permission... through expropriation... without fair compensation...

Isn't this the most innovative "Smoke and Mirror" marketing scheme on earth today?