vote splitting and possible turncoats

[Choice2U]

Agstar & Mustardman - I'm glad you finally have admitted that the directors of the CWB are politicians. Hard core supporters have always pretended that the CWB issue should be settled by farmers only. This now exposes the political benefit of fighting to keep 17,000 names of retired, BC bound, landlords or hobby farmers on the voter's list that don't know and don't want to learn anything about marketing their own grain.

[agstar77]

And you ,obviously, have marketing and selling confused, so don't pat yourself on the back.

[LWeber]

stubble:

Try again with one thought in a sentence.

[charliep]

agstar77

Just curious about your definition of marketing and selling.

Marketing to me is taking an active role in decision making including pricing, delivery timing, logistics and understanding customer needs/how your product (in this case grain) benefits them.

Selling is finding a local elevator and simply delivering for whatever the price of the day is.

[charliep]

Also note the comment about grain companies.

Know grain companies do very well on CWB grains - guaranteed elevation (inland and port), paid cost of carry (storage and interest) and no risk management costs/needs on price (CWB/farmers carry this risk).

Perhaps what farmers need to be aware of is the cost of the CWB itself starting with its producer pricing options.

[agstar77]

If grain companies had more risk would they not pass the cost on to sellers? The same way they pass on efficiencies as Chaff says?

[agstar77]

Charlie, marketing is more than checking with different elevators to see which one has the best basis. How many farmers actually do more than that, it would be interesting to get that number? Do you have any numbers?

[charliep]

Absolutely if they can. One of the reasons why canola basis levels are wide today.

Before you pat yourself on the back to much, I have note open market crops are mostly paid on delivery. To accomplish the same thing with CWB crops, you have to accept the wide discount to both current cash prics and the PRO forecast. The discounts are the CWB cost of managing risk which the farmer pays. If a farmer stays in the pricing pools, they bear all the risk (which is both potential benefit and pain) of price movement during the year including the CWB process around an average price during the year (described page 43 of the 2006/07 CWB annual report).

[Hopperbin]

How many farmers actually do more than that, it would be interesting to get that number? Do you have any numbers?
Agstar do you ever check to see if an elevator can give higher moisture as dry? Cost of drying? Who gives less dockage or pay for dockage? Pay Trucking insentives? Pay premium over CWB payments? Charlie at least close to 100 percent of farmers do at least that. Even agstar must watch or take a look at charts, trends, world supply, chinese buying, there is no end.

[charliep]

I suspect most farmers have used some form of forward pricing to capture market opportunities, generate cash flow during times of year when loans, rent and bills come due. I don't think any farmer sells 100 % of the crop on a given day so there is some form of price averaging during a marketing year.

If any farmer has grown malt barley, specialty oil canola or any of the pulse crops, they have thought and are trying to meet the needs of a customer based on market information they have been given. Most will at least know of the Warburtons contract. Most will be aware of the CWB IP programs.

I know grain farmers spend a lot of time delivering grain but winter is the time everyone should be developing their market starting with getting a handle on costs/breakevens. It should also be a time of developing processes for staying informed about markets and market skill set development.

To the question, I suspect who is elected needs to have the strategic thinking and management skills to oversee the operations side of a $4 to $7 bln business. I wouldn't expect the directors to get into the daily nitty gritty of operating the CWB risk management side/contract programs but they had better be prepared to monitor results and ensure the products are meeting farmers business needs.