CWB supporters please help me out with something

[Fransisco]

Silverback, I think you got everything right except that I think Jag's from somewhere in Western Saskatchewan.

[food4u]

Yes he is northwest of Swift Current near the Alberta border.

[Fransisco]

Okay Jag, I call BS.

Name one guy who has been growing nothing but board crops for ten years and then buys land every single year from the profits he's made.

[Jagfarms]

I know several people in our area that do. All you
would have to do is get a land map and drive
around and look at the farms and see what is grown
on their land here and it is CWB crops year after
year. There are many VERY successful farmers in
our area that grow CWB ONLY crops. That is what I
see here it might be different where you are located
and if is I feel bad for you but that is the way I see
it here.

We have a small custom grain hauling business and
we truck about 4,000,000 bushels a year in our
area and quit a few of the farms grow only CWB
crops. They have the option to grow several other
crops but they CHOOSE to grow CWB crops and they
are doing very well at it.

I do not want to give out any names but all you have
to do is go for a drive sometime out this way to see
what I see. If you take highway 32 from Swift
Current to Leader and look at some of the farms in
between you will see what I am telling you.

[Fransisco]

In other words you have no proof. We just have to trust you. Typical.

[chaffmeister]

The argument isn't about whether you can make a living with CWB grains or not. (Most guys will tell you that they need non-CWB grains to succeed. Most studies concur.)

Say you quote a rate of $20/tonne to haul grain, and your customer says he'd like you to do it for $15/tonne. You can still make money at $15 but everyone else is willing to pay $20. Do you do it? Do you drop your rate?

I'm gonna guess you don't. The market is the market and why would you accept less than the market is paying.

Same goes for the CWB. Some of us can see that the market is paying better than the CWB but we're forced to deal with the CWB and accept the lower returns.

Supporting the CWB because it's "handy" is just that much BS. It is a burden on the whole prairie community sucking billions of dollars away from your communities. Supporting the CWB short-changes our businesses, our families and our communities.

By its very nature the CWB averages annual returns to everyone. What that means is some do better and others do worse. That's the law of averages. So that's great that you and your neighbours enjoy the CWB so much but your complacency is costing others the ability to truly succeed. Remember - dealing with the CWB is mandatory.

Complacency isn't progress. and if you're not progressing, you're going backwards.

[silverback]

So obviously Jag your durum crop now ranks #12 on the list behind your trucking company because you don't have time to worry about it.

I will never understand how someone like you with all the advantages of the area you are living in can so willingly vote against your neighbors right to sell his grain how he sees fit, just so you won't have to think about one more thing.

How many of these big farms you talk about had a few thousand acres handed down over the years from those before? That tends to make just a little bit of a difference don't you think? Now do you suppose that the reason that they only grow 1 crop every year as opposed to your 11 is because they just don't WANT to worry about it like you, and don't HAVE to worry about it thanks to great grandpa?

Yet their vote to maintain the cwb monopoly ensures their neighbor, who is maybe struggling to grow his business, stays in shackles.

Nice.

[Jagfarms]

Fransisco

you said

"Air Canada survived"
The have their own fleet of aircraft.

CWB has no grain terminals.

[Fransisco]

Jag, the CWB doesn't need terminals. Toepfer doesn't have any.

The CWB is a deal maker, you don't need physical assets to make deals along the value chain.

[silverback]

11 crops and you have never dealt with a grain broker who doesn't own an elevator or have a monopoly?

[Fransisco]

Look at it another way.

You haul 4,000,000 bushels a year of other peoples grain with 'your assets'. I'm guessing the more grain you move the more money you make. You are after all in the business of moving grain.

Well a grain company is not that much different, they are also in the business of moving grain and the more they can move the more money they make.

It is not in their interest to turn down buisness any more than it is in yours. Particularly with all of the overcapacity that is built into Western Canada right now. I actually think the board is in a better position because it is not locked into any particular pieces of concrete. That gives it more flexibility and allows it to play grain companies off of one another to get the best deals.

[dave4441]

JAG-gotta reply to this one.

Most of the farmers you refer to are working with 50 year money, they are not looking at return on investment. In the bad years those guys are not saying much. SOmeone beat me to the punch on the CWB not being able to survive without infrastructure and it is a complete joke. All sorts of companies in the world work without terminals. AWB is buying products from all countries in the world for resale in other countries, acting like a true global marketer. I am not 100% against the full removal of the CWB as i think that some can benifit from using their services, but many would be way better off not being forced to use them. In certain years a open market would crush the board and at least allow the introduction of more younger operators that are willing to learn to market their product with futures, options, etc. We need these people. CWB only growers are the older growers who can afford to sit and wait, they are not the future.