The CWB 'Paradox'

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

I am truly thankful for the many hard working folks at: Bunge, Cargill, Viterra, the many independent marketers that are part of our transparency in prices...

ALBERTA AGRICULTURE

AND

EVEN THOSE WELL MEANING FOLKS AT THE CWB WHO TRY TO MAKE OUR SYSTEM WORK.

How do we express the human kindness... side of our relationships... WITHOUT HAVING THE CWB TAKE IT AS APPROVAL FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE?

I have no doubt... if the CWB disintegrated and disappeared... our systems of grain infrastructure would be reworked within days... if not hours... at massive savings to everyone.

So how do we deal with this paradox?

How are we to be fair to the folks on the ground at the CWB... who work hard and do not make the problems the CWB cause to our farms?

[charliep]

Will leave your questions for others.

Was going to post in the PRO but kinda applies to your question. Perhaps also relates to unintended consequences.

I note the CWB is struggling to get higher quality/higher protein wheat into the system. At the same time, the fixed price contract is encouraging farmers to deliver lower grade/protein wheat ahead of the upcoming adjustment payment.

The spread today between a 1CWRS 13.5 and a 3CWRS today on the PRO is about $1.60/bu (September spread was very similar). The spread on initial payments is 90 cents/bu. If you believe this, then a 1CWRS 13.5 will get a $70/tonne and 3CWRS $50/tonne just to bring the spreads in line.

the implication is farmer who delivers 3CWRS on a fpc 2 days before the adjustment payment will be $20/tonne better off than the farmer who delivers 2 days after the adjustment.

Without going into any great details, I would as a farmer trying to get the best price for product deliver 3CWRS against my FPC as soon as possible (knowing what I am saying is impossible given elevators and the last thing they want is more 3CWRS).

When you take the price signal out of delivery, a lot of really stupid things start to happen like this. the best solution would be for the CWB to use market based spreads for the FPC the same way they do for the daily price contract a couple of years ago and the way they do it every day on the sales side to domestic mills/US.

My question to a CWB director hopefull is why after 10 years hasn't this change occurred? Should things be based on market signals or simply a lotterly/luck when you can find space at an elevator around an adjustment payment?

[parsley]

"How are we to be fair to the folks on the ground at the CWB... who work hard and do not make the problems the CWB cause to our farms? "

IMHO: It is my observation, and my belief that every management-employee at the CWB is well aware that the CWB is not an institution that serves farmers; rather. it is there to provide them with a good paying job with better benfits than most institutions offer, and the undivided loyalty of every socialist generation who succeeds them who will continue to crank out their pensions.

IMHO:CWB employees will do everything within their power to preserve their job, including running the pools dead broke if farmers won't grow wheat or barley any longer They know if they sell South Dakotans grain they will still be paid. they are smug and secure.

Simply put, it is my belief that the CWB does not give one bloody damn about any farmer.

Parsley

[Burbert]

Yup great post Tom. The price a grain will skyrocket the day the CWB ceases to exist. Or tank is more likely, when the multies sense they kin do what they want with Comedian farms and farmers.

[bucket]

Keep growing wheat for the cwb and get nothing for it burbert.

There is an incredible acreage battle going on right now.

The grain is moving okay for the time being but come may/june of 2011, elevators will be laying of staff.

The canola crush plants want canola in the ground as early as possible so they don't have to shut down in the middle of september next year.

The cwb will still be trying to figure out how to fill the orders with american grain they are going to be paying dearly for.

[parsley]

burbert, would you agree that the people who work at the CWB are only interested in their salaries? Would you agree you could lock 3/4 of them in their exercise room with their individual blackberries with games apps, for 75 days, and no buyers of wheat and barley would even notice that they were gone?
No extra sales would be made or lost?

Pars

[wmoebis]

One thing is for sure!

We got rid of 3/4 of the family farms and nobody noticed.

[Hopperbin]

Wmoebis, what does that have to do with the CWB or this post? If your worried about our family farms for what ever reason start a post on it.

[parsley]

wmoebis,
I agree.
Family farms have decreased dramatically.

But wheat, over the last 60 years, run by a state marketer, has NOT sold well at all, has not kept up with the price of tractors, or rubber boots, or magazine subscriptions.

Why hasn't it?

[parsley]

And wmoebis,

Those small family farms, most of them, have DEPENDED upon selling wheat, have taken great pride in growing wheat; in fact, placed their trust in a sonofab%^$hin' government marketer to look out for them so they couild stay afloat.

3/4 failed you say.

And Wheat Board staff have burgeoned like a circus fat lady, bloated and useless.

Surley you will at least agree wheat prices are not inflated. Pars

[parsley]

You can't punch him, so at least come up with some sort of an argument, hopper. Pars

[wmoebis]

I'm easy to find I don't hide behind a username. LOL

I didn't say in any stretch that they failed. In fact a lot did very well in all ways. Provided a good living, raising up to 12 kids on 1/2 section and sold out for good money. If that is a measure of prosperity.
What I was getting at is with only 1/4 of the farmers, even tho they are producing more grain, maybe a loss of 3/4 of the employees at the CWB wouldn't be such a big deal.

[Burbert]

Who cares about people? Those small Comedian farms were owned and operated by people and families. Who cares? Farming is and should be driven and ruled by the market, in other words GREED! The bottom line is all that counts. GREED is good. One day when all the land in Comedia is owned and operated by a dozen or so land barons, we'll truly live in utopi or should that read dopia????

[charliep]

Perhaps what every farmers goal should be is to operate a profitable business consist with personal values and goals. Everyday the idea is to capture opportunities that add value to bottom line. If farmers are empowered to do this via their own creativity and initiative, I suspect the individual farm business (be it an individual family, a partnership or a corporation) will be around for long time. The size of this operation will change - no longer a world of wd9 tractors (sorry wd9) pulling a 12 foot drill on summerfallow but a continuous cropping operation pulling 40 plus feed of one pass/low disturbance seeding equipment pulled with a 300 hp tractor (hopefully this makes - an economist in an ivory tower). Maybe the way wheat and barley are marketed has to change to reflect this reality.

[TOM4CWB]

Burbert,

I assume your tounge in cheek 'thrashing' was about our 'Eskimo''greed'...

Instead the reality is./.. of real farm families working day and night to bring in a healthy crop and pay our many bills... growing this good high quality food for a hungry world.

I do not know of one farm... where your 'greed' attitude is the primary reason they grow food.

I believe the same to be true of folks who work for us at the CWB.

God bless them... I hope they ALL have a great weekend!!!