So what's up with wheat"

[farming101]

<a title="Cliff Jamieson - Wheat" href="http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtnag/common/link.do?symbolicName=/ag/blogs/template1&blogHandle=canadamarkets&blogEntryId=8a8 2c0bc4c9a7d96014d4a24a0820614">Cliff Jamieson - Wheat</a>

[sumdumguy]

Same experience here Vicki. We've been trying for years, can't compete nohow.

[charliep]

I have to ask the question why everyone continues to grow wheat for export. Why are there not more opportunities to process wheat domestically?

I would note the domestic feed market prices have actually been pretty good all winter. Yet barley acres are staying fairly stable. You have a choice of a market you sell to locally or markets you rely on railcars to get crop to port.

[farmaholic]

A cereal is a necessary evil of a decent crop rotation. Malt barley market it too small and a lottery, Oats...well, feed barley...if you're close to a market, canary seed ...easily overproduced.

We'll NEVER consume what we produce in Western Canada. Value added, alot of times, happens near where the end product in needed. Probably cheaper to ship raw bulk commodities than the finished product.

[charliep]

Just curious if anyone has ever compared the percentage of crop you grow for a domestic customer/can access by truck and the remainder that is grown for an export market/rely on the rail system?

Wheat is big challenge. A round number would put potential 2015 Canadian wheat production at about 30 MMT. Domestic disappearance is about 9 MMT. That means that 70 % of Canadian wheat production is exported/mostly dependent on the rail transportation and logistics sytem that blends/moves volume.

[Hopalong]

Hope new Alberta govt does not get too caught up in union supported idea of local value added ahead of free trade as with idea of refining oil at home rather than exporting.
Over the years, Alberta has been a strong proponent of trade rather than protectionism.
Other provinces can thank it for leadership in this area.

[charliep]

I wouldn't second guess what will happen on oil policy in Alberta. I also agree in the case of wheat, it would be difficult to attract a mega flour mill or these days wheat based ethanol plant for the reasons farmaholic indicated. When the opportunities likely exist are for smaller focused value adding wheat processors. Example is a contact with a pasta plant that was struggling to find semi lina produced from organic durum. The opportunities are to shore up the supply chain by having a smaller flour mill that would develop relationships with farmers and provide the pasta plant the semi lina they require.

Easy for a government guy to come up with these ideas but these are the things that could happen.

Way off topic. Perhaps to the title question, wheat is a commodity in a very competitive world.

[Hopperbin]

Charlie I would think wheat competes with rice. Rice is also in the gutter. Is there any indications of rice coming back up any time?

[foragefarmer]

Charlie

"I have to ask the question why everyone continues to grow wheat for export. Why are there not more opportunities to process wheat domestically?"

I though in your opinion ( as Ab. Ag. Employee) when the CWB had the monopoly it was hampering domestic millers from getting established or increasing value added.

Now you ask the question?

[charliep]

Hopperbin

Don't follow rice. A comment that commodities in general and crops in general have suffered the same fate price wise. Will note there are begginning of talk about El Nino. Need something to break the bearish sentiment in the market.

Foragefarmer - A tough question for a civil servant in a time of change. As you have highlighted in the past, the world has changed so the discussion is kinda irrelevant at this time.