Bioethenol HAVE YOU MADE A STRAW CONTRACT

[r.reid]

ATTN. Farmers in North East Saskatchewan!

Have many of you have signed a straw contract with Iogen??

For those of you that haven't...WHY NOT?

Crunch time is on NOW and they need YOUR straw in order to build this multi-million dollar factory.

If they do not get enough straw, they will build it in the United States. Because they (the U.S. farmers) want it there. NOT here. Does that piss you off??

HERE IS THE CONTACT PHONE NUMBER: 1-800-499-9688

HERE IS THE FAX NUMBER: 306-765-2844

HERE IS THE E-MAIL: strawbuyer@iogen.ca

Iogen will PAY YOU for YOUR straw, and PAY YOU again if you bale it, and PAY YOU again if you can truck it.

BUT THEY NEED THE CONTRACTS NOW!!!!!!!!! or they will leave.

[tower]

What prices are being talked about for straw? Is it sufficient to cover the cost of soil depletion? If a farmer puts 200 kgs of fertilizer per hectare, and removes four tonnes of grain, and also produces a couple tonnes of straw, I think the land has to be suffering.

Generally I'm a supporter of developing markets to their potential, it worries me that we are going beyond our lands potential on this one.

[FarmKid]

Hi
I'm a first-timer.

Here's a link to the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association's take on the subject: http://ssca.usask.ca/newsletters/issue31/HarvestingCerealStraw.html

The point seems to be that in many areas there is enough residue for soil conservation and building your soil after baling in the black soil zone. Many producers will have excess residue that they can profit from. If there's one place where this is a good idea, it's in the north-east.

Hope this helps some people.

[r.reid]

People bale wheat, oat, and barley straw all the time. Do you grow wheat on wheat year after year? Propably not right. Your oil seed and pulse crop residue would remain every other year or whatever.

I heard $10/ton for the straw (just dropped behind the combine). Baling and trucking would be extra. Phone the contact number to verify.

"Kyoto" is going to make these type of factories happen. Might as well be here.

[chipper]

Just a question about straw removal, but to me $10 per tonne seems a bit cheap for something that needs to be replaced with a nitrogen cost of what .35 per pound. As well, will the cattle people in your area take kindly to an increase in price of the straw or do you see a way of supplementing their needs some other way?

[r.reid]

Okay. I have a contract in my hand.

Choice A is $10/metric ton. (flat rate)

Choice B depends on the price of a bbl of crude oil. For example if oil is under $19 bbl you will get $7 metric ton for your straw. But if it oil goes to $55 or more...You get $15/metric ton. Straw prices are dictated by the price of a bbl of crude oil.

Think about that. It could pay for the wheat seed, or think of the jobs it will create. Think of the positives and don't dwell on the negatives all the time. Farmers some place else (the U.S.), will get it if you guys here don't want it. It's going to be the future, so you better like it and get use to it.

Remember; Nitrogen costs flow with the cost of energy. So this means that.....CHEAP ENERGY = CHEAPER NITROGEN. eventually

[FarmKid]

Keep in mind there's very little nitrogen in straw. Nitrogen isn't spread evenly between grain, straw and roots. It's concentrated in the grain. Most of the nutrient you'd be selling is potassium, which we generally have in abundance. More details in the SSCA link in my earlier posting.
r.reid: good thought on the linkage to the price of oil.

[Lifer]

Correct, people bale straw all the time. They are most successful when they have an intended use for the straw.

some more links to to think about to calculate straw value.

http://www.cfi.ca/uploaddocuments/d161%2BNU%5FW%5F01%2Epdf

http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app19/calc/crop/nutrientuse.jsp

[tower]

It seems to me that the whole point of the Kyoto agreement ought to be that we leave as much in the soil as possible. Is there anyone with contracts from the soil carbon sequestration brokers?