Weatherbug (Yeah!!!!) and CWB (Boo!!!!)

[checking]

This is straight off the CW Web site

""Access to the weather centre, through CWB e-Services at www.cwb.ca, is available for a subscription of $99 per year for farmers with a CWB weather station and $199 a year for those without. The weather stations cost $900 for farmers who wish to be put on a waiting list for CWB installation. “Our new network is a cost-effective solution to a longstanding problem for farmers who have been looking for type of weather information,” said Ash. WeatherBug and the CWB have achieved commitments to date for 900 weather-monitoring stations, greatly surpassing initial projections last August to connect more than 600 stations over a three-year span.""
Check out the www.bayercropscience.ca web site under "tools and guides" then "Quick links" and "Bayer Weather. Use "Canola" username and "Grower" password and you have access to the whole Weatherbug archive and live data from all Weatherbug stations that are tied through high speed internet.

It didn't take the CWB to invent this weather data coleecting system.; it was already in existance. For a few hundred dollars US; anyone can have exactly the same hardware; and free access to the same Weatherbug archive. All the CWB has done is take all the credit for other people's high speed internet setups; put a markup on the equipment available from many sources; add an annual charge; and cripple what is already free. Its exactly what I've come to expect from an organization that continues to styme alternatives.

PS It looks like the CWB cost is now $1750 for the package now available. Gold and Platinum packages are coming. I'll bet they are already available elsewhere; and are just optios of sunlight and UV sensors and things like sensors for soil temperatuure and leaf wetness. Too bad the CWB wouldn't get so busy with gadgets they would let farmers market their own grain.

Thanks to agstar and others for hints that allowed me to find this information. What do the rest of the readers think?

[SASKFARMER3]

I guess i pay allot for the Bayer weather service indirect but the CWB system was way to costly from the beginning. Good Idea weather centres all over the place to give a real reference of whats happening out their. But the cost was way out to lunch. Bayer still hasn't paid for my weather station but i think they will this fall. They owe me.
CWB should get back to marketing our grain if we aren't allowed to. And not just give it away, really get me a premium once in my farming carrier.

[food4u]

Don't hold your breath SF.Been forced to use the CWB for 43 years and haven't seen a premium yet.

[FarmRanger]

Like the Zellers slogan, in western Canada, the lowest price is the LAW.

Fortunately for Zellers investors, it’s just a slogan and not a flawed business model.

[cropduster]

This weather thing is Ward W`s baby.Neat and deflecting.................shouldn`t these guys be selling wheat and barley?????They only sold 23% of prairie barley last year.Guess the guys in the old folks homes need a way to track the weather without actually having to go to the farm!!Progressive grain marketing at it`s finest!!

[tipsy]

The cwb ONLY sold 23% of the barley crop,is that accurate?

[Fransisco]

Export malt barley sales: 1.5 mmt

Domestic malt barley sales: 1.1 mmt

Feed barley sales: 185,000 tonnes

Total CWB sales: 2.785 mmt

2008 crop: 11.2 mmt

The CWB sales were 24.9% of the crop

[tipsy]

Idon't know which appalls me the most,the 8 cwb stooges that refuse the majorty of barley growers the option of choice that they continually ask for,or,P.M.Harper and his non-effective and time is of no concern approach to this issue.

[Fransisco]

The 8 stooges are staying true to their principles and beliefs (as twisted and screwed up as they may be). Harper on the other hand has few if any principles that he hasn't done a 180 on.

[tipsy]

You are some what correct.They are definitely,stubbornly,sticking to their beliefs.Principled,uh,no.They speak with a fork tongue,out both sides of their mouth.Every time one of the 8 stooges gets to speak and some one will listen,which unfortunately is often, there is a common theme in their verbal(and written)diarrhoea.That theme is,farmers are directing and controlling the cwb,when in fact it is the 8 stooges and their attitude/beliefs that are dominating the cwb.Their actions reflect their beliefs not their principles.