More freedom in manitoba

[stonepicker]

I think the biggest problem that you and some others have with a free market grassfarmer is jealousy. You don't like seeing others work hard and prosper, after all that's what socialism is all about ( everbody getting the same no matter how hard you work ) You seem to think in a world depressed wht. market that some how the--- could miraculously get a better price than everyone else. Collective marketing only works if you have a captive buyer. Like the dairy industry in canada.

[grassfarmer]

I think the biggest problem that you and some others have with a free market grassfarmer is jealousy. You don't like seeing others work hard and prosper, after all that's what socialism is all about ( everbody getting the same no matter how hard you work )

The biggest problem I have with the "free market" is I realise the concept is an illusion. What would I be jealous of with your free market stonepicker? the fact that after 25 years it was giving the farmer less money for his product than was achieved through collective marketing?

You like to stereotype people to support your weak case but what makes you think I haven't worked hard and prospered? What an insult to all our forbearers that built the prairie pools and the milk marketing boards and other farmer collective marketing agencies to suggest they didn't work hard or prosper.

You seem to think in a world depressed wht. market that some how the--- could miraculously get a better price than everyone else.

Oh, so now it's a world depressed wheat market to blame - something that the CWB detractors denied existed in previous times. All the windbags like SF3 that were going to haul their wheat across the US border and get twice as much for it every time as they were getting under the CWB. You are discovering now what the smart people knew all along - there is no way to miraculously get a better price than everyone else. The guys with their "fish marketing freedom" will find out the same in time. Best chance of capturing a stable and viable return over the long haul is through collective marketing.

Collective marketing only works if you have a captive buyer. Like the dairy industry in canada.

I thought you guys always argued the CWB was a captive buyer? That must mean that collective marketing did in fact work well under the CWB?

[stonepicker]

The --- was never a buyer of grain. They sold our grain and gave us what they owed us over the next one and a half years. Time to move on grass farmer, quit wanting other people to have to do what you feel is best. Isn't a democracy all about freedom of choice? Time to go to work.

[Hamloc]

Grassy can't believe you won't leave the CWB in the grave where it belongs. I think co-operative marketing will obviously give the seller more clout. Unfortunately with the CWB there was no clear way of comparing what I received to the world market. It took a year and a half to get your final payment. Also if I grew hard red only one place I could sell it the CWB. I will be honest with me to a great extent it is ideological, I just don't like big government, too much waste. When I talk to many Europeans farming in Canada they came here to get away from government oversight of everything they did. Every day I see more and more demands in Canada for more government, more regulations, more taxes lets be like Europe, let's NOT!

[grassfarmer]

The --- was never a buyer of grain.

Funny that, how often I argued that on here, stating they were a marketing agency working on behalf of farmers only to be contradicted by those who stated that No the CWB was the only buyer they were allowed to sell grain to.

Grassy can't believe you won't leave the CWB in the grave where it belongs. I think co-operative marketing will obviously give the seller more clout......

On the former because it isn't a dead issue - I don't mean bringing back the CWB in Western Canada to market your grain but the wider conversation about farmers getting value for their production which I'm sure we can all agree is a challenge.
On the latter BINGO!! we agree - that is part of the solution to the former. Imagine if we could set the ideology aside and build a better future on the basis of attaining more "seller clout" in a tough marketplace.

[Bootances]

At least today I don't have to wait 18 months for my few crumbs.

Now they just pay you half of what its worth upfront. Thanks Stephen!

[sumdumguy]

If the wheat board wouldn't have been so stubbornly inflexible, we would have both systems running today. Why do you think that the CWB couldn't compete. Buraeucratic waste! I knew a wheat board trader who used to laugh when he told me that they threw a gala ball when they just finished selling wheat below the cost of production. Think he was lying to me?

[malleefarmer]

Sumdumguy has got it correct to a degree.

Collective marketing was ok until black sea became a huge exporter and funds became bigger player in grain markets than the grain companies and the actual grain itself.

And china south east asia moving away from noodle based diet to more western protein diet a lot has changed. Even beer we used to sell second grade malt barley to china "they will make beer out of any barley scenario" nowadays premium barley for premium beer more disposable wages I guess in china and will pay more for a better beer. Anyone had chinese beer in days gone by watery pale stuff.

And globalization wheat corn beans are harvested 24/7 somewere in the world supply changes at blink of a eyelid up and down.

And possibly sumdumguy mentioned again the cost and admin of single desk killed them.

Milk board here and co-ops same crap price as free market no premium for single desk milk the world price is world price.

[grassfarmer]

Mallee, I don't buy the argument that co-ops/boards don't work nowadays because of free trade and an implied global pricing equality.
Certainly isn't the case with the milk situation in Scotland just now. The real damage being done, what's taking out even some of the best producers is price inequality within the marketplace. Where some guys are losing the farm getting 11p per litre others are getting 30p per litre. Milk is milk - there are price corrections for different protein or butterfat levels but the guys getting the low price are not doing a bad job or producing a poor product they are victims of circumstance. The retailers (big supermarket chains who wield the power in Europe) are playing games by awarding and dropping the supply contracts they give to milk processors so as to manipulate the milk price lower. The milk processors have no real choice but to pass on this pricing to their farmer suppliers. So if you are out of luck because Tesco just severed their supply contact with your processor because they managed to get another processor to sign on cheaper you take the loss. This is the kind of crap that organised producer marketing boards can and should counter - they need to be forced to come up with an acceptable price and that should be awarded equally to all producers supplying the same quality milk. Milk is the commodity best suited to pooled pricing. Nothing socialist about that - just common sense.

[tman]

1.5 year wait

Under the CWB did it take 1.5 years to get paid when the fixed price or the futures contract options were used or was it just the pool option? To my recollection my stubborn 82 year old pro CWB father and other farmers I know didn't have to wait 18 months when they used the other marketing options.