CWB supporters please help me out with something

[vvalk]

I think this deserves its own thread so I will repost from the other thread my comments.

What if all the crops you grow were under the great marketing powerhouse we call the CWB. Then you could only sell 60% to 80% of all the crops you grow. How could you run your business? How would you pay your bills and manage cash flow? Where would you store next years crop? What would your bank say? They wouldn't lend you any money thats for sure. Why is it acceptable for the CWB to force you to hold onto 40% of your crop and store it for free? ( with all the risks, storage costs and time value of money) You can't even buy it back at any cost. You would not accept that for all your crops so why the board grains? Can any CWB supporter out there explain to me how this is acceptable to them?

Please no answers like they are having trouble making sales because of the current crisis or a large crop so we don't want to give it away. We grew the largest canola crop ever by 30% and you can sell all of it. This goes for every crop out there. What is the cost to your farm by having to sell other crops for cash flow because you can only sell 60 to 80% of your board grains and only get an initial price on that 60%. You really are getting less then 50% in terms of cash flow.

[SASKFARMER3]

I agree VWALK CWB supporters just answer the question. Why is it we have to join your club yet you have access to ours and i works just fine.
Please explain.
Right now I am forced to hold 60 to 80% of my crop to prop up sales to our preferred customers next year. And I dont want to here why dont you just not grow Durum and HRS.

[Fransisco]

It's even worse if you've got malt barley. We grew something like 4mmt of malt last year and the board says it's only going to sell 1.4 mmt and I've heard that it will probably be more like 1 mmt.

We'd have no problem selling all of it if it wasn't for the board.

[charliep]

I will let discussion but will the 1.4 MMT is likely just actual seed exports and doesn't include domestic malting capacity (normally about 1 mln tonnes). Seems strange to me that everyone (including the CWB which is perhaps thing) forgets the most important and highest priced customer that contributes the most to the Canadian economy. From CGC grain stats weekly, Canadian barley exports to January 4 were 500,000 tonnes so the CWB will have to export 900,000 tonnes in the next 7 months.

[Fransisco]

Okay, so maybe half the malting barley gets picked up. Excuse me while, as a farmer, I am still underwhelmed by the CWB's performance.

[charliep]

Not picking on you - lots of others including the CWB have the same number.

Your point (and others) is the market could easily absorb the full 4 mln tonne of available high quality malt barley in western Canada. The question would be at what price?

The CWB response would be that if it potentially drives malt barley prices below the current PRO forecasts or worst, initial payments, they wouldn't do the business.

If the CWB were innovative (cashplus program for China, multi pooling years, separate pools for specific business, etc.) - which I realize is an oxymoron - they could increase malt barley volumes sold, add competition to the feed market at prices higher than currently is being paid and tighten high quality supplies up in the domestic market at the end of the year to ensure current selected malt barley is actually delivered by the end of the year (no cherry picking May to July). The result may be slightly lower malt barley prices but the overall impact is higher barley prices in total (including that sold in the feed market).

[stubblejumper]

the 60% /80% is only for the 1ST contract. the question is how much will be sold at year end.

[Fransisco]

The answer is that no farmer knows. So how do you run your buisness if you don't know your product is going to get sold?

[Fransisco]

To answer your question charlie "at what price?" The worst malt price is still head and shoulders above feed.

[SASKFARMER3]

Here is one SLB just increased beer in Saskatchewan. 1 - 2 dollars a case. Hm CWB maybe is getting a premium for our Malt, why else would these prices be increasing.
HA HA.

[Jagfarms]

You can sell 100 percent without the cwb and get the same price you would get for selling 60 percent with the cwb. The market would be flooded if 100 percent would be sold at once. Not every one would get a low price or get the high price but the people who would get the high price would mostly be the people who could afford to hang on to it till the price was good.

[charliep]

Just curious why wheat would be different than canola. Farmers seem to be able to decisions around canola to average sales out during the year based on market signals/business needs. If anything canola gets more pressure to deliver off the combine because of board grains. CWB grains mean you sign a "A", "B" or "C" contract, wait for a contract call and then get paid 60 % of the expected final (likely 1/2 the real cash price). You can correct but pretty tough to cash flow anything with CWB crops - canola, pulses and feed grains pull the cash flow load.