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[crusher]

TOM4CWB,

I admire your passion for the agriculture industry and your constant attempts to move the industry forward, I don't have near the energy!
Good luck in your battle against the chairman of the board. I read in his Western Producer bio his farm is one third summerfallow, kinda lives in a different world - with different viewpoints.
ps - I might have to eat my words, we could be combining again soon, how about you?

[TOM4CWB]

Crusher;

Thanks!

Soon maybe finish off the last of double flat barley... got the beans off last Friday Dry!

On my trip to Nipawin... was surprised to see how much flax has been harvested recently!

Looks like next week could see many farmers finish off most harvest... if we can get a few more warm dry days!

Tower... look for opportunities... they are there for those who search them out!

Marketing is hard work I know... but can be just as fulfilling as any other part of our business... and is the key to a profitable farm!

Our IP Canola is not a lost leader... it is an opportunity to grow healthy products that people appreciate and pay a premium for!

This is a positive for all involved... faith, in our family and community;

hope that next year can bring prosperity;

And the love of being creative... growing a healthy crop that contributes to healthy lives and spirits...

This is the essence of a sucsessful farm!

[chaffmeister]

Ration-Al:

I can’t follow your logic when you say: “…world population is at 6 billion and heading for 9…”; “…vast numbers…will want basic sustenance at the lowest possible cost…”; “Will Canada continue to play that game?”; “What will we do…?”

You’re kidding, right? You’ve painted a scenario where demand for food outstrips the current (and projected) ability to supply. I’ll tell you what you’ll do – even as competition grows via production increases around the globe, you will sell every pound of grain you can produce for much higher prices as the world strives to survive. (Let’s not argue about how much the world can produce or who will be able to pay for it, etc – I’m sure that’s not where you were aiming anyway.)

In an earlier posting you said “When we get down to the last two or three bushels the buyers will get excited and compete to buy the last bushel”, I suppose to explain your theory of what needs to be done to get prices higher. But here in your latest posting you paint the scenario where there is demand for more wheat than what is likely going to be produced – and you wonder what we will do?

Is this your idea of “a generous dose of realism”? Or simply your version of la-la land.

For you to present your “reality” and then suggest that Tom’s ideas are just dreams that don’t come with a dose of realism, indicates quite strongly that your “reality” is quite different than what the rest of us see (well, some of us).

And what was the purpose of asking the question anyway? I didn’t see any solutions or positive ideas, without which this is just more fear mongering. I think I get it now – you’re hoping to make those who read your postings think that they are helpless and the situation is hopeless. That way, they will see the CWB as a white knight, there to protect hapless farmer-souls from the clutches of those evil multi-nationals and other vagaries of the world. Even when the world is banging on your door willing to pay almost anything for that last bushel of wheat, the CWB will be there to make sure it’s sold in an orderly fashion.

[Ration-Al]

Chaffmeister,

You are right. I was jumping ahead of myself. When the world population rises to 9 billion the demand will probably outstrip supply and I hope that all of the farmers in the world become millionaires.

Actually that will probably not happen as the world would see that as being patently unfair and governments will intervene. Farmers seem to be the last profession on earth that the would be allowed to make obscene profits. It is ok for doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. It is ok for unionized trades to make $25 or even $50.00 per hour. But as soon as farmers want a fair price for their labors the headlines start to read, "Farmers Cheat World of Cheap Bread" or "General public is being cheated of the bounty of nature.....hoarding the world's grain."

The point I was trying to make is that regardless of whether we have 6 million people or 9 million people there will be vast numbers of people who can ill afford the costs associated with high value commmodities. They will just need their daily caloric intake to survive.

Even today with IP programs like Warburtons and Navigator, hard white wheat and the newer varieties of milling quality winter wheat it is difficult to extract the premiums from the market place to incent the producers to participate. Certainly the Warburtons contracts are a success but I have spoken to many farmers who have looked at the premiums and consider them insufficient for all the additional work and costs.

[charliep]

Just a comment that farmers do not know what the premiums are. Through the pooling system, revenue from all sales (including IP contracts) are deposited in the CWB overall pool accounts.

The signal the farmer gets is initial payments, any adjustments and the final plus any premium for the IP. The IP premiums are established well before sales are made (including IP ones I suspect unless the CWB negotiates these premiums with customers in better basis in the spring).

My concern in these contracts do not receive true price signals for these contracts. For all people outside the CWB sales department know, actual premiums paid by the market for IP wheats could be bumping up pool returns and distributed to all farmers. Similarly, any discounts to establish for new wheats may also be born by the overall pool. Give the producer pricing options are tied to the CWB pools, they suffer the same problems.

Is there a commitment by the CWB to ensure the pool returns to IP crops accurately reflect the premiums/discounts actually paid for these crops in the market place? How would a farmer who grew an IP crop know they have been credited this benefit in their total payments?

[Ration-Al]

Good question Charlie,

Perhaps you could contact someone at the CWB and ask them for the answer to that question.