What percentage of feed barley do you sell to the CWB

[charliep]

how much of this is later exported as malt barley? JUST HAVE TO GET CLARIFICATION. MALTSTERS SOURCE ANYWHERE FROM A QUARTER TO HALF OUT OF THE ELEVATOR SYSTEM. THIS IS SLOWLY CHANGING BECAUSE MALSTERS DON'T LIKE BLENDED MALT BARLEY.

YOU MAY ALSO BE REFERRING TO WHAT PERCENTAGE OF MALT PRODUCT IS USED DOMESTICALLY - ABOUT 300,000 TONNES OR 30 % OF MALT PRODUCTION.

[parsley]

You're yelling so loudly chaliep, I can't sleep!

Parsley

[craig]

BennyHin
Your logic doesn't work this year. An open malt barley market would better reflected values in the malt market and provide less incentive for producers to try and back out of contracts and in turn dump this barley in the feed market.There would in all likelyhood would be longer term contracts in place. In an open feed market you again would have seen a better reflection of world barley prices and in all likelyhood would have drawn more barley stocks off shore which in turn would have had a positive spin on local prices. As you stated what the board in fact does is put a bottom floor on prices. Sadly those values are often so low they aren't even relevant.

[BennyHin]

Charlie: I dont grow it, I fertilize basis feed production. I just want people on this site to clarify their findings with some background research, after all the internet has armed us with lots of information, unfortunately most of it is garbage.

By the way Charlie, phone the brewers of Canada or ask the CGC about the export clearances of malt products. The reason I raised this question is that the Canadian malsters not only sell their products domestically, but also into highly completive export markets, so they cannot afford to buy ALL 1 MMT of des barley basis the domestic market values.


MALT:
Grain, usually barley, that has been allowed to sprout, used chiefly in brewing and distilling.

[charliep]

So what you are saying that the maltsters have malt barley priced relative to the export market they are selling product into. I would assume US malt product markets would pay the same as a Canadian brewer. I assume that Japan wouldn't be to far off. So that leaves other markets where the maltsters sell product in competition with Europe. Total numbers on malt product are in the annual report but not the breakdown of customers - available in several studies.

When I talk to directly to malsters, they are willing to sacrifice this benefit from farmers (lower prices for a portion of pool returns) in exchange for the ability to communicate more directly with farmers on price/delivery. Today's situation (lower malt PRO relative to the domestic feed market) is not working for malsters. I encourage you to review the attached document to understand why.

http://www.wbga.org/market-signals.pdf

[charliep]

By way of curiousity (you may already know), the CWB is working on a program with maltsters/brewers where they will offer a basis contract relative to western barley futures. A similar contract has been offered to farmers for at least a year. I assume these two numbers will be the same. If not, where does the money go?

[TOM4CWB]

BennyHin,

Simple "Single desk" economics.

1. Sell an equal amount of grain each month... of the produce in that pool... and pay the grain grower the average.

2. The CWB Pool marketing year normally starts physically selling actual new crop between Oct. 1 and 31st of each crop year. The CWB normally claims they cash sell... and risk manage any forward sales with futures positions that offset that risk. There is unlikely any cash sales of export human consumption barley before Sept. 1 of 2006/07 malt barley production.

3. The wreck I am told in Europe was done by Sept 10th 2006. Here is a report on what caused it from the EU.

"Malting Barley prices this season have risen from an opening £72.5 per tonne in mid July to a current price of £112.1 per tonne, 46% higher than the equivalent week in 2005. The rise in price is primarily due to short supplies across the major markets e.g. across Northern Europe, where the summer drought followed by rain at harvest time lowered both production and quality. Demand from Europe led to UK barley being exported and some maltsters who did not secure supplies earlier reported to have insufficient stocks. The strong global feed grain market has also supported the market"
http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publications/Monthly%20brief/nov06FarmingFoodBrief.pdf

The CWB ought to have known, by August 15th to Sept. 1st 2006 that there was a big problem potentially for malting barley. Why would they risk selling with the explosive potential caused by the Australian drought?

3. The CWB did nothing, did not execute a risk management strategy, and sold our barley at far below world values. Simply, there is no reason for the CWB to have sold our human consumption barley to ANYONE for the prices it sold for.

So what happened?

It appears this was simular tactical move to the 1947 tactic used by Henry Monk, of the CWB... to force the feds to back off on "marketing choice"... barley being the target as the Western Grain Marketing Panel Report, and Australian Reports lead this to be the easiest and clear first choice. The CWB created a massive contingent liability on barley... that the feds could easily be on the hook to cover.

SO... for "single desk" barley growers... is this just a small sacrifice to save the CWB from loosing barley?

Is this practically the reason why you defend the undefendable...?

Are you saying we must "save" the "single desk" at any cost?

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

A quick calculation on 112.1 British Pounds = $5.52/bu CDN.

Did I get that right?

CDN to US $.8525
US to BP $1.93