I Still dont get it?

[malleefarmer]

oliver that should have all been 15 yrs ago when cwb was strong and had farmer "directors".

I know I will get flamed by all of you but your beloved cwb was behind the times by 20 years, at least in Australia I think average joe farmer got around 60k worth or shares when it was floated depending how much grain you sold them over previous I think 10 years.

Im not a awb or cwb fan but we at least got something and it was viable and functional when single desk finished and finally got gobbled up by Cargill because of that reason was worth something.

What were your farmer directors doing playing twister, cause they were pretty good at twisting and turning when need be, but even more why weren't you farmers questioning them, like hey weve gotta change structure here, but the horse has bolted.

open slather shoot me down

[mbdog]

Mallee...you seem to get it pretty good... Good on aussies to see their board for what it was sooner and their ability to capture/politically negotiate some value for the producers/provinces forced into the system. With the exception of a few sour g****s, and a few who are politically motivated to use the board as a wedge issue, producers have moved on and aren't complaining about the expanding and developing competitive environment. Value in the board wasn't bricks and mortar yet a very subjective thing. The political value was squandered perhaps...time will tell.
Movin on....

[farmaholic]

There was an attempt to change but maybe too little too late. Then a government was elected with a promise of removing the monopoly, which it did, unsystematically. No one can agree who the majority was, pro or antiboard, and that debate has gotten so old and biased its sickening. To me, the whole decision became subjective and not objective, a decision based on ideology and emotion.

No planning....just threw open the flood gates, no checks and balances or methodical transition. First two years were painful with the historically big crop one of those years and transportation issues. Unfair pricing considering a fair basis based on what deductions were pre open market.

Hard to believe that even those who so desperately wanted marketing freedom couldn't see that after decades of monopoly that some of the hard assets couldn't be seen as being earned by retained farmer capital. All we ever heard is how ****ed over we were getting so how do you think those assets were
being acquired? Office building, Mission Terminal, a fleet of hopper cars, ships being purchased.

Too political, too polarized, too bad. I am not bemoaning the demise as much as how it was done. I don't think too many people quit farming because of it either. Adapt and move on. We functioned with out board control over many other crops and did just fine, I am hardly devastated and heart broken, there some things I am enjoying in the open market........makes us accountable.

[riders2010]

right on farmaholic! that does say a lot about how this whole thing went down its still evolving and not with the customer in mind. The extreme wing nuts calling the shots for both sides were more worried about getting their way than actually thinking about the most import things which were.
Why do so many people want to get rid of this?
If we get rid of it how do we make the situation better?
no one gave a crap about either of those

[blackpowder]

Agree all the way. Ive wondered about that myself. One thing tho was for sure.
Ritz had a short time to make sure it was completely gone for good. We can all see what would have happened if he had dicked around. Publicly, no one was agreeing on a damn thing for years. An epic stalemate that continues on agriville today.
Napalm may have been the only thing left.

[chuckChuck]

It is surprising that many farmers don't seem to care that farmers have little control over the grain handling system now and most of it is now foreign owned.

There are many on this site complaining vigorously about the various grain handlers but were never supporters of the prairie pools or the CWB.

If you make a trip into North Dakota there are still lots of farmer owned Coops doing well and paying good dividends in many years.

Farmers could have had a bigger stake in the grain industry and had more influence.

Farmers deserve what they got and I have little sympathy for all the complaining.

[Rareearth]

Mallee you have insight from afar that many so close can't see.

The farmers received 0(zero) for the equity contributions, government foreign aid projects, ships, office buildings, and I have to say it "good will". My grand father, my father, and I contributed for decades. I'll leave it at that.

[stonepicker]

Oh is the farmer in north dakota forced to sell his grain to the farmer owned co-op chuck chuck? No he's not, and you say they're still doing well? I think that's great! they obviously don't need an iron-clad monopoly then. Freedom of choice, what a great idea!

[farmaholic]

BP: they had 4 years and maybe longer if they would have dumped their "Leader". There would have been a chance they would still be governing today... but that is a whole other story.

[malleefarmer]

Another question was it "weyland inland terminal" that was a co-op and a receival site? What happened to that and who bought it?

In retrospect why did the farmers let it go or was it a white elephant?