Farmer Owned and Controlled

[agstar77]

Warburton selected the area it wanted grain from. I don't know the entire process but I believe it was only open to growers in that specific area. That is why it was not open to all growers.

[parsley]

ringy-ding ding

CWB: Good Afternoon. This here's the Canadian Wheat Board. We're famous for pooling all Western grain. One stop shopping. I'm the Rowhlee muskakateer. One for all and all for one. What can I do for you?

WARBURTONS: This is Warburtons. We wanna buy some wheat for making bread, but we only want to buy from the folks around Winnipeg. We hate the guys around Kola, and also near Kindersley. Can you cut them out?

CWB: Yup. We hate those same guys.And Albertans? they get ha ha ha ha ha......ziiiiiiiiiPO.


WARBURTONS: Could we get a 10 year contract?

CWB: No problem. Poolings not important,anyhow. Your contract will be stamped "confidential". Grains on the way.

WARBURTONS: Hey, you guys are good. Chow.

CWB: We do it all the time. Chow.

click
click

[parsley]

agstar,

I understand it is Harder to be a contractee if you want choice and want to be a participant.

Parsley

[grassfarmer]

charliep,
Depends what you define by the "livestock industry."
If you mean the packing industry and their lackies that front pseudo "commodity groups" like ABP/CCA in a pretense of representing producers the answer would be no.
A cohesive, powerful single desk marketing board working on behalf of cattle producers would seriously reduce the margins being made by the US transnational meat processors.

I'm not saying the CWB is perfect but the concept of single desk marketing could be made to work for the benefit of beef producers and should not be dismissed because a single desk grain marketing body is not universally popular among all grain producers.

Properly set up and managed a single desk beef marketing board could tackle many of our most serious problems.
Combined with proper anti-competition laws to break up the captive supply situation that now controls the fed cattle supply in Western Canada and things could really improve.
It would allow beef producers to reintroduce competition into the beef processing sector by forcing companies to compete for fed cattle without their unfair advantage of controlling a large part of the inventory through captive supply.
Given the potential benefits of this to beef producers they would be eager to accept the concept of single desk sales - but of course your Alberta Government would run another dishonest campaign using taxpayers money to urge beef producers not to back such a proposal.
Afterall their alleged policy of backing "marketing choice" and "free enterprise" is nothing of the sort. The Alberta government policy on agriculture is set by Cargill and on beef was all about subsidizing foreign packers to set up in Canada and eliminating competition within the processing sector. It is clear they continue to do the dirty work for the transnationals as anyone who has been watching developments in the beef sector post 2003 will be aware of.

"Is the CWB a good thing or a bad for the western Canada's livestock industry?" - I honestly don't think it makes a lot of difference either way.

[charliep]

grassfarmer

You would accept single desk. If price pooling/control over delivery was a part of the requirement, would you also support this organization?

The three pillars of the CWB are single desk selling, price pooling and government guarantees.

[grassfarmer]

charliep,
You asked if the livestock industry would support single desk selling - I said yes. Implying that every little rule and regulation would have to be exactly the same as the current cwb setup is nonsense and certainly not what I was suggesting. If the objective is merely to fuel your vendetta against the cwb I'm sorry I ever responded to your question. I thought maybe there was a genuine interest in how single desk selling might work for other commodities.

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77,

Ringy, Ringy...

CWB... we are an international buyer...looking for some 'fair trade' wheat and barley from western Canada... can you help us?!

CWB answers: Well you see you can only buy that grain from us for export... and we will assure you that any 'special' premium you would prefer to pay any specific grower... is past along to all growers in the 'designated area'.

But that shouldn't be a big problem... cause as long as you take our grain from the CWB pool... we can assure you long term supply contracts... at the lowest prices avaliable anywhere on the globe... and we will make sure all 'designated area' growers share in this service... and that no one grower will be ripped off in this special pooling process more than any other grower...!

Equally shared...

No one grower knows the difference... cause no one can know what you paid!

Now this is true CWB fair trade grain Agstar77.

Then the CWB invites international buyers to come down; have a vist to 423 Main.... and grin about the Billion $$$'s lost by 'designated area' wheat and barley growers... in 2008 inventory losses... provided GRATIS by the SINGLE DESK to them.

Basis at rock bottom prices... cause fools/pools will got priced out @ $40-$160/t below fair market value!

Thats it Agstar77... no price transparency... no basis transparency... and why would this be?

The Black Book;

IS


The Black Hole.

[charliep]

No vendetta against the CWB. Just a simple question as to how a single desk livestock marketing organization (could be cattle or hogs) would price product to people who participate. Control domestically only or control over exports. Compulsory or non compulsory. Governace/voting structure. Where would single desk apply? Cow calf/light feeders? Backgrounders? Finished cattle?

[Fransisco]

Us hog guys lived with mandatory single desk selling for generations, we don't want it back.

You want to know how to make a bad situation worse? Its called the single desk.

No thanks, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, don't ever want to go back.

[parsley]

grassfarmer,

The DA is a single-desk. The rest of Canada isn't.

Why don't you start your own single desk with a bunch of like minded farmers. Sell together. Pool together.

I think it can be effective.

Just as the CWB doesn't need Ontario, GRassfarmers' Single Desk won't need the rest of farmers.

Parsley