Merger

[Fransisco]

LOL, loss of critical mass! How much of the worlds marketshare of wheat does the board handle? The last report said 11% not that long ago it was 15% going back a few more years it was 20%.

The status quo is doing a real bang up job in the critical mass department.

[chaffmeister]

Agstar77:

Oh, puleese.

You talk about grain companies raiding CWB employees yet Adrian Measner used to talk about how the demise of the CWB would be the demise of 400 jobs in Winnipeg. Which is it, Agstar?

As for critical mass, Fransisco hit the nail on the head, but here's another striking blow - if the CWB goes voluntary on barley, how does that impact the "critical mass"? The way I see it, in an open market Bob and Joan will be much busier than they are right now. Who knows, if the CWB management and BOD really saw the opportunity they are faced with, they may even need to add some talent to the barley desk.

[Burbert]

Agrisnore has been a dog from day one. It is still a dog, and will remain a dog, it doesn't matter who it jumps into bed with!

[TOM4CWB]

Burbert,
Proverbs(11:27) He who seeks good finds goodwill,
but evil comes to him who searches for it.

[just_wondering]

Agstar your comments on farmer elected BOD makes me think about a few things
1) Bench strength in AU and CWB there were too many farmer elected directors some would definitely be an asset but what other skills do they bring to the table? Finance HR mergers/acquisitions many things about running billion $ companies that are not everyday skills on even the best run farm.

2)Elected on single platforms
CWB single desk support gets you elected
A.U. open market supporters and be nice to delegates at AGM
an example of this was that banker who did not get elected to A.U BOD because he wasn't a very good public speaker and he talked like a banker, they needed his skill set recruited him and then the delegates did not like his speech so he got booted???
As far as private companies who they have run them as B.O.D. only matters to shareholders.
The CWB matters to me as a person forced to do business with them I have a right to lobby/call for choices.

What chaffmeister said about the terminals is the biggest question there is already one sitting idle from the last round of consolidation.
As a farmer in the country there are many offers on who to sell to and inland positions are very competitive it's the ports that are the bottleneck where we need more choices

[wd9]

bgmb, re: public traded company and no benefit.

If it is a good investment, buy some shares and you can have a piece of all that wealth. Farmers don't have to own stuff to make money.

[bgmb]

wd9

Farmers don't have to own stuff to make money? That's a new one!

I guess you mean businesses don't have to be solely owned by farmers to make money for farmers.

You're right i could make money if i owned shares in the new company. However i would have to tie up extra capital to capture profits i am capturing right now.

This merger will take money out of my farming operation by decreasing competition in the input and grain markets. So to make the same amount of money i am currently making i will have to go buy shares in RA international.

That doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.

[Lifer]

JRI's expanding their business to provide more opportunity for farmers.

Throw in the fact that they are a Canadian family company.I'm not clear how that is a bad thing.

More real competition for farmers who want to grow something more than a commodity.