wmoebis asked me the question:
"Why do you call grain grading crap? Do you not think that grain quality control is important? How would you profess to cut the Hrs. in half and maintain our standards?"
Grain grading.
Where does one begin, answering a question like this? Farmers have been told so often that we pay for a superior service, that who am I, a dorky twit from small town rural Saskatchewan, to have the gall to give Canada' s grain graders and their systems, a calling down?
But I do know this.
Without "farm-grain direct to buyer" sales, with the buyer's specs impeccably serviced, organic deals would never had happened. Never. A baker wanting a specific falling number. So I guess I do understand the basic importance of a miller wanting good bread making wheat as opposed to a rust resistant wheat. I've learned a bit about selling and a lot about eating, so I consider I'm qualified to give my farmer's opinion.
This past week, I watched a wrench from the Public Service Alliance torquing away at the MP's in Ottawa, lobbying for more of the same CGC status quo. And got it.
The failure to bring about meaningful grain grading changes in the interest of farmers, infuriates me. The idea that Canada has the perfect grading scheme is noxious. And the lack of knowing what happens in the real world is akin to farmers putting a wisdom tooth under your pillow, hoping for a buck or two.
Farmer Joe recently refreshed my memory of his experience while visiting a grain terminal out at the West coast at Vancouver, quite some years ago, where his eyes were opened, wider than he would have liked, to what grain grading at the terminals shouldn't be, but is. But perhaps from his observations, we can begin down the path to 'what must come'.
A good old boy, basically retired, gave Farmer Joe a tour of the terminal. As one of the terminal's graveyard shift employees, his job was to ward off the folks wanting to fish, so he had time to take the Farmer Joe on a tour of the terminal's "cleaning floor " where the grain was cleaned, and there was no dust at all, and the grain being cleaned, that farmers were, and still are paying for, was as whistley-clean as could be, why, even Aunt Sally would be proud.
#3 Hard Red wheat heading for Mexico was being cleaned at the terminal that night and loaded directly into the ship a-waiting as it made it's way through cleaning, and then distributed into the ship, When they followed along the distributor, of course, Farmer Joe had these itchy fingers he couldn't control, after all, seed growers have those experienced hands and eyes , so he couldn't resist watching for an opportunity to snatch a few handfuls as the flow of wheat found it's way through the terminal-monstrosity to the hull of the ship.
In the grading room, four or five of the grain graders, whose salaries are paid by farmers, sat around drinking coffee, kicking out a sample of the grain headed for the boat every so often, grading it, four plates with samples. Joe's fingers stirred.
Farmer Joe got to looking at the samples, carefully, his eyes identifying all the kinds of 'stuff' in the sample, including rye, and durum and mustard and buckwheat, well, you name it, it was there; but, at the same time his head kept telling him he couldn't be seeing all this crap, because the grain was cleaned. Farmer Joe said to the graders, "This grain would be sample back home. Look at all this shit in it." One of the graders replied, "I'll tell the boys to cut it back a bit."
Huh?
Now here's the real story from that farmer's eyes.
The Mexican buyers had definite specs for the CWB grain they were buying.
So, first, the grain was cleaned to the best possible end product, farmers paying, screenings separated. (Do you suppose some of the grain could be # 1 and #2, not 3)? Then percentages of screenings were being re-added to the grain flowing into the ship, so that Mexico's particular #3 spec's for the wheat invoice would be satisfied. Grading down.
Meantime, all screenings were headed for separate storage, to be sold by the company who had bought the grain as the accredited CWB agent. Screenings are any company's goldmine. If you buy top quality clean wheat and blend it down with "free" screenings, you not only get paid grain price for the portion of the screenings that you blend in, but you also have a hunk of top grain you substituted the screenings for, that you can sell at an od (overdosed) price
Farmer Joe told me, "Farmers don't have a hot clue of what they're paying for or what they're getting for their money."
The companies do know. And that is why Wheat Board grains are their most lucrative crops to sell, their handling agreements their best banking asset, and farmers' stupidity and grain their most reliable resources. And the CWB's monopoly enables them.
Some countries actually want and order screenings in their grain. For chicken feed. Many countries want to do their own grain cleaning; they do not want, order, or purchase top quality cleaned grain. In fact, for a lot of countries' orders, the grain is mixed dirtier leaving the terminal than when it first enters the terminal.
And yet, we clean all of it. And why? Who speaks for farmers' money being spent, with no value to farmers? Have you heard this being on the CWB's agenda at farmer meetings? If not, why not? Who gains from the status quo?
*Farmers' grain is shipped to the terminal where it is cleaned impeccably and the farmer is charged for the cleaning. Salaries.
* The farmer is charged for weighing. Someone gets a salary for weighing while someone else gets a commission for selling new scales.
*The grain is graded by the grain commission. The farmers pay for all grading.
*The farmers pay for elevation.
Pay. pay. Pay.
Where is the organization that is supposed to be the farmers' wheat and barley marketing arm? Does the CWB close a blind eye? I'll remind you once again of deer poop in the ship's hulls, Did the CGC apologize? Did the CWB apologize, or send a bill to the CGC, or to the Accredited agency? Or did the farmer pay for the recleaning? For the lost sale? For the press releases? Are we so blind, that we do not understand that if farmers do not look after our own bottom line, NO ONE , and I mean no one else is going to do it for us?
Did you know, at least this is what I am told, that barley does not get cleaned at terminal, and yet farmers are charged for cleaning it? Get out and look at how your money is being squandered into other pockets.
It was NO ACCIDENT that the CGC bill was squashed! Any change will be met with resistance, because it is about jobs. And about companies reaping profits. And about the CWB maintaining the status quo. Every player fits into the clustered cozy little nest. And don't bloody well forget it.
What should farmers do"?
1. Educate yourself. Treat grading expenses as if it is your wife maxing out a dozen credit cards. First of all, find out which cards she has.
2. Know what you want changed. You WANT to pay for cleaning and then dirtying the grain? Scheesch!
3. Make sure when the truck ramps at the elevator, and the deal is struck, that the company legally owns your grain, not you. You shouldn't be the risk taker from then on.
4 Transform the system so that farmers trade grain according to sample. Organics do it successfully. Write out your specs and sell your grain based on the specs. A simple private grain test company will and can do the job. We need rudiments of the following :
1. protein
2, moisture
3.test weight
4. foreign Material
6.falling # at times
7. quick visual
Grain quality begins on the farm. The deal must be made according to the quality of the sample. Grower to buyer. Period.
By the way, when Farmer Joe went outside and viewed the ship from the Vancouver shoreline, there was so much dust being loaded, he could hardly see the ship. Yes, that's right, the dust, you paid to have cleaned out. That's crap, wmoebis, present grain grading is crap. Pars
"Why do you call grain grading crap? Do you not think that grain quality control is important? How would you profess to cut the Hrs. in half and maintain our standards?"
Grain grading.
Where does one begin, answering a question like this? Farmers have been told so often that we pay for a superior service, that who am I, a dorky twit from small town rural Saskatchewan, to have the gall to give Canada' s grain graders and their systems, a calling down?
But I do know this.
Without "farm-grain direct to buyer" sales, with the buyer's specs impeccably serviced, organic deals would never had happened. Never. A baker wanting a specific falling number. So I guess I do understand the basic importance of a miller wanting good bread making wheat as opposed to a rust resistant wheat. I've learned a bit about selling and a lot about eating, so I consider I'm qualified to give my farmer's opinion.
This past week, I watched a wrench from the Public Service Alliance torquing away at the MP's in Ottawa, lobbying for more of the same CGC status quo. And got it.
The failure to bring about meaningful grain grading changes in the interest of farmers, infuriates me. The idea that Canada has the perfect grading scheme is noxious. And the lack of knowing what happens in the real world is akin to farmers putting a wisdom tooth under your pillow, hoping for a buck or two.
Farmer Joe recently refreshed my memory of his experience while visiting a grain terminal out at the West coast at Vancouver, quite some years ago, where his eyes were opened, wider than he would have liked, to what grain grading at the terminals shouldn't be, but is. But perhaps from his observations, we can begin down the path to 'what must come'.
A good old boy, basically retired, gave Farmer Joe a tour of the terminal. As one of the terminal's graveyard shift employees, his job was to ward off the folks wanting to fish, so he had time to take the Farmer Joe on a tour of the terminal's "cleaning floor " where the grain was cleaned, and there was no dust at all, and the grain being cleaned, that farmers were, and still are paying for, was as whistley-clean as could be, why, even Aunt Sally would be proud.
#3 Hard Red wheat heading for Mexico was being cleaned at the terminal that night and loaded directly into the ship a-waiting as it made it's way through cleaning, and then distributed into the ship, When they followed along the distributor, of course, Farmer Joe had these itchy fingers he couldn't control, after all, seed growers have those experienced hands and eyes , so he couldn't resist watching for an opportunity to snatch a few handfuls as the flow of wheat found it's way through the terminal-monstrosity to the hull of the ship.
In the grading room, four or five of the grain graders, whose salaries are paid by farmers, sat around drinking coffee, kicking out a sample of the grain headed for the boat every so often, grading it, four plates with samples. Joe's fingers stirred.
Farmer Joe got to looking at the samples, carefully, his eyes identifying all the kinds of 'stuff' in the sample, including rye, and durum and mustard and buckwheat, well, you name it, it was there; but, at the same time his head kept telling him he couldn't be seeing all this crap, because the grain was cleaned. Farmer Joe said to the graders, "This grain would be sample back home. Look at all this shit in it." One of the graders replied, "I'll tell the boys to cut it back a bit."
Huh?
Now here's the real story from that farmer's eyes.
The Mexican buyers had definite specs for the CWB grain they were buying.
So, first, the grain was cleaned to the best possible end product, farmers paying, screenings separated. (Do you suppose some of the grain could be # 1 and #2, not 3)? Then percentages of screenings were being re-added to the grain flowing into the ship, so that Mexico's particular #3 spec's for the wheat invoice would be satisfied. Grading down.
Meantime, all screenings were headed for separate storage, to be sold by the company who had bought the grain as the accredited CWB agent. Screenings are any company's goldmine. If you buy top quality clean wheat and blend it down with "free" screenings, you not only get paid grain price for the portion of the screenings that you blend in, but you also have a hunk of top grain you substituted the screenings for, that you can sell at an od (overdosed) price
Farmer Joe told me, "Farmers don't have a hot clue of what they're paying for or what they're getting for their money."
The companies do know. And that is why Wheat Board grains are their most lucrative crops to sell, their handling agreements their best banking asset, and farmers' stupidity and grain their most reliable resources. And the CWB's monopoly enables them.
Some countries actually want and order screenings in their grain. For chicken feed. Many countries want to do their own grain cleaning; they do not want, order, or purchase top quality cleaned grain. In fact, for a lot of countries' orders, the grain is mixed dirtier leaving the terminal than when it first enters the terminal.
And yet, we clean all of it. And why? Who speaks for farmers' money being spent, with no value to farmers? Have you heard this being on the CWB's agenda at farmer meetings? If not, why not? Who gains from the status quo?
*Farmers' grain is shipped to the terminal where it is cleaned impeccably and the farmer is charged for the cleaning. Salaries.
* The farmer is charged for weighing. Someone gets a salary for weighing while someone else gets a commission for selling new scales.
*The grain is graded by the grain commission. The farmers pay for all grading.
*The farmers pay for elevation.
Pay. pay. Pay.
Where is the organization that is supposed to be the farmers' wheat and barley marketing arm? Does the CWB close a blind eye? I'll remind you once again of deer poop in the ship's hulls, Did the CGC apologize? Did the CWB apologize, or send a bill to the CGC, or to the Accredited agency? Or did the farmer pay for the recleaning? For the lost sale? For the press releases? Are we so blind, that we do not understand that if farmers do not look after our own bottom line, NO ONE , and I mean no one else is going to do it for us?
Did you know, at least this is what I am told, that barley does not get cleaned at terminal, and yet farmers are charged for cleaning it? Get out and look at how your money is being squandered into other pockets.
It was NO ACCIDENT that the CGC bill was squashed! Any change will be met with resistance, because it is about jobs. And about companies reaping profits. And about the CWB maintaining the status quo. Every player fits into the clustered cozy little nest. And don't bloody well forget it.
What should farmers do"?
1. Educate yourself. Treat grading expenses as if it is your wife maxing out a dozen credit cards. First of all, find out which cards she has.
2. Know what you want changed. You WANT to pay for cleaning and then dirtying the grain? Scheesch!
3. Make sure when the truck ramps at the elevator, and the deal is struck, that the company legally owns your grain, not you. You shouldn't be the risk taker from then on.
4 Transform the system so that farmers trade grain according to sample. Organics do it successfully. Write out your specs and sell your grain based on the specs. A simple private grain test company will and can do the job. We need rudiments of the following :
1. protein
2, moisture
3.test weight
4. foreign Material
6.falling # at times
7. quick visual
Grain quality begins on the farm. The deal must be made according to the quality of the sample. Grower to buyer. Period.
By the way, when Farmer Joe went outside and viewed the ship from the Vancouver shoreline, there was so much dust being loaded, he could hardly see the ship. Yes, that's right, the dust, you paid to have cleaned out. That's crap, wmoebis, present grain grading is crap. Pars
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