Malt Barley

[lakenheath]

Vader,

Please, for the sake of Western Canadian farmers, gives us back control of malt barley.

The CWB has absolutely no business marketing it for us.

It has all the potential to be a bright spot for us in a time where everything else is looking really marginal.

You have to start somewhere. It is just a matter of time before all grains are dual-market.

Let's ease our way into this new world of marketing starting with barley. You still keep your cushy little job with the board and we get some more marketing flexibility.

What have we or you got to lose? Tell me.


Sincerely,

A frusterated young farmer

Lakenheath

[cowman]

Make that 2 frustrated young farmers!!!

[furrowtickler]

Make it 3.

[caseman]

Make it four.

[WRAPper]

And one unhappy middle aged one too ,

We grow a high percentage of malting grade barley most years and I follow it closely. I am beginning to question the sense of growing malt at all in Alberta at 2.50-60 when I can grow zena or some other higher yielding feed variety and net the same or better, without the harvest pressure . Likely we'd see better grade patterns on our cwrs as we always concentrate on the barley first.
I note that many analysts I follow have been very positive on the upside for feed grains and corn for 06. That should be translating to Malt barley as well, perhaps it's time for the CWB to take a look at their game plan is the let's grow another million tonnes a good strategy or a bad one?

Charlie
One thing that might be missing here though is the potential for added returns via quality payments as was the case with protein this year. The number the board uses for the pro is becoming a little distorted as storage, protein and ?? ,payments and pro's don't completely show the final value of the barley when all is said and done.
Does anyone calculate the additional payments that they receive for storage and add that to their ending values?
Not defending the values though, it's not very heartening.

[cheapskidoo]

WRAPper, i couldn't agree with you more. Why bother with the risk associated with malt when you can grow feed and pile it on the ground if you want. I think it is time that all farmers stop growing malt and lets see what happens to domestic maltsters. The new pro is down and this years pro is embarrasing as well. If the board thinks that Australia has so much good malt, let them import it, well see how that works out.

[charliep]

WRAPper

The feedback I get from a maltster is that quality is so specific to their individual customers that it is hard to define/value except as relates to lots and individual sales. Had a conversation with a maltster yesterday about the logic around the $3/tonne spread between special select and standard select. The extra time and cost of going through the hassle of sampling/grading is not worth the effort when this is not an indicator of malt quality.

Where I think we might go is to quality grids (similar perhaps to where some feedlots are regarding plumpness and bushel weight) that allow some flexibility in pricing. The grid would be flexible enough to allow maltsters to get signals to farmers about brewers specific needs. To be blunt, this is where the current single desk system - difficulty in getting specific signals to farmers about customer needs farther up the supply chain.

In the last post, I will note that anyone growing malt has to understand the aspect of developing relationships and being part of a supply chain. If this is not part of your business plan, you are better off growing feed barley. Over time, malt barley has been one of the most profitable crops for farmers who consistently hit the quality specifications.

I also note that there is no relationship between the current PRO and the price a malster would pay a farmer for new crop supplies. How many of you have asked your malster what they would forward contract October/November supplies for? It would likely be more than the $115/tonne Alberta price indicated by the PRO.

[sawfly]

How is malt priced, is it some % over feed. world price , north amercia , Why cant the board just say its $4.50 ?