CWB and farmer control sorry chuck chuck

[Braveheart]

Actually, when all those dead people and retired and absentee farmers voted in the board that was there, I wasn't disappointed. I knew with the cast of characters it would just be a matter of time before the board was gone.

[blackpowder]

How on earth did a CHS ever exist without being mandatory??? Proof right there.

God, this is getting silly.
Do your children farm???

[blackpowder]

And I assume you would happily never grow lentils. Hypocritical to do so.
Course not sure there would be much market if the putrefied bord in control.

[malleefarmer]

I am great friends with a ex awb director very very intelligent man, but he told me a million times if not one million and 1 all decision were made my ceo and the cwb from top down until it got to directors who would anylize it listen to debate and vote usually the way of those above.

CWB would have been no different farmer directors had little involment in policy zero in sales and risk management.

That not a criticism just the truth of most famer run shows.

[malleefarmer]

So in a nutshell crow rate was subsidized freight and was abolished??
Leading to closure of elevators no doubt?

NSW 2nd largest wheat state has cross subsized freight even today from certain areas of the state apparently $6 to haul wheat on rail rather than truck for up to 600 kms but this isn't in public forum but known so still happens.

I'm not here to debate rights or wrongs chuck just saying how it is in aust compared with you guys. Weve got it 3/4right still have huge supply chain costs and mostly at port.

[chuckChuck]

Mallee. Many farmers here were willing to give up control of the grain handling system and transportation through their Coop grain handlers and the CWB for some utopian "marketing freedom".

It has been replaced with multinational companies who have no loyalty to Canadian farmers and the profits go elsewhere.

Farmers could have had a bigger share of the profits and a whole lot more say, but many farmers seem to prefer to bend over for the big companies.

As you can see on Agriville there are still a lot of complaints about wheat prices and predatory grain company behavior under "marketing freedom".

But that does not seem to register the same concern as the CWB.

So if the CEO made all the decisions why did your friend sit on the Board of the AWB? Sounds like he was wasting his time.

I have met several of the former CWB directors and they certainly had a lot more input than just nodding their heads in agreement with the CEO.

[blackpowder]

The Crow had taxpayers pay up to 1/3 of freight if to ocean port.
All the 10 car spot elevators loaded uncleaned grain. Cleaned or resold at port. Screenings sold at port.
Keep in mind US winter wheat loaded Portland would have little or no natural dockage yet be shipped up to tolerance if profitable. Loaded (malt) barley myself for WA feedlots. Taxpayers bought railcars which are now wore out. RRs not encouraged to invest at all as poor margin. Capped rates. Still exist. All the rats behind the scene did very well for decades all the while keeping the uneducated peasants in the dark. Penalties for heresy. After it gone, AB feedlot alley exploded. 20 years before board gone.
Traditionally and still today, the core support lies the furthest from port.
Areas where wheat and durum grow very well and very easily. Areas with sometimes questionable rail service.
Areas with the most freight and the least diversification. (Traditionally) Like siblings at a trough constantly squeeling nothing fair to them. Everything had to be equal. No one allowed an opportunity unless shared with all prairie growers. The investment in diversification for all grains in last few years amazing. Commercial storage capacity etc. I could go on.
Dont for a second believe the banshees on here Mallee. Their kind only useful when a dictator needs someone to force total control. Altered reality. Like my ex.

[blackpowder]

Remember in 05 selling bran frosted high pro good falling number wheat for $2 a bushel.
Visual grading ruled and the leviathan with the remote, pea brain said their "traditional buyers" didnt want.

Had wet snow melting into a pile and was denied "permission" to sell it.

The bloody list is a mile long and has been worn thru like an old record.
None of which happens today.

The enforcers list is short, repetitive, and false.

[Braveheart]

The "Crow Rate" was a government legislated rail freight rate. It was unsustainable as freight rates from 1897 couldn't possibly cover cost as they rose into the 20th century. No new investment in motive power, railcars or improvements to rail were happening. There was some minor tinkering but, in the mid eighties the Liberal Govt passed the Western Grain Transportation Act.

The WGTA was like an annuity. Freight rates were eligible for a subsidy if they touched tidewater. The subsidy declined over the years with the govt paying less and producers paying more of the tariffs. In the mid nineties with little of the subsidy left the Liberal govt of the day scrapped the whole thing.

Elevator rationalization was taking place anyway. The loss of the WGTA had little to do with it. It's just the way mode business has trended.

The biggest debate over the WGTA was who should receive the subsidy often called the Crow benefit. Chucks team sided with the Prairie Pools to insist the railways receive the benefit. The Wheat Growers, cattle producer organizations and a few others said the farmers should receive the benefit to remove an export slanted distortion from the marketplace.

In the end, and Trudeau admitted his mistake later, the govt sided with the Pools, NFU, and the railways and the decision changed prairie agriculture really forever.

[malleefarmer]

Upcountry rail service to here shut down everywere in last 15 years but sites many of them closed maybe 2/3 but other still open, goes into same elevator were rail loading facilities still stand.
Instead b doubles park under it and transport it to port or my local A class site were its unloaded then reloaded onto a train at later date for delivery to port.

Don't know ins and outs of rail costing but must be super costly and or inefficient compared to trucks don't know how at times, though our roads unlike utopian Canadian paved highways everywere are a disgrace gravel mostly here most not b double rated but used anyway exasperating wear and tear issues.

At least you guys have healthy transport infrastructure or roads looked ok last time I was there way back when 96 might have changed tad