Peas Yellow Edibles

[SASKFARMER3]

What to do with the peas that we are going to harvest soon. The rain has not been a help to the crop. Lots of fields are flat on ground. Local seed grower has a new variety that is 80 Acres and was two feet tall now 6 inches. Price has dropped to stupid levels. $5.25 at most east prairie areas.
We are selling those that we locked in at 7.00 and then bagging the rest. Seems like the Indian Gov is playing games again.
What are others doing.

[furrowtickler]

Bin htem and wait. Alot of peas were bought in july/august and the buyers are in good shape for about a month. Yellow peas are going to stay on the lower side - big crop about to come in.

[dave4441]

Hard for peas to get real bullish with $5 wheat/durum in the background. I agree marketing now probaly not the best, but timing of demand will be important. Who blinks first.

[charliep]

I see the term - "Who blinks first".

I note that pulses for the most part do not have the same level of price discovery and risk management as other crops. To quote a cialis ad, how will you know "When the time is right"?

[dave4441]

I think we this will be a tough marketing year on pulses, with lots of info to come thru the crop year that will push the markets either way. I think layered selling (quarterly/monthly?) or profit per acre marketing will be best. Holding for highs of 2 years ago may reward, but may punish hard.

[dave4441]

Actually Charlie, I think pulses have better marketing and risk mgmt techniques then CWB crops. Act of god contracts take risk away from grower. I realize that long term price discovery (and more so, mkt knowledge) is difficult, but no more difficult then canola in the sense that we never know over the long haul if a decision is correct, irregardless of crop. Durum marketing shows in the last 2 years, that having some contracted would have paid. Jury is still out on next crop, but at least you have options with pulses

[charliep]

Actually I agree.

What causes me some angst is the thought among some the only way to get a good price is if someone shorts the market - a end user who doesn't plan and has to enter the market in panic or a processor/broker who sells to an end user/doesn't have supplies covered by farmers.

What works better is a good market information where prices are relatively visible (eg. what off shore customers are paying for pulses), western Canadian farmers who have target prices they are willing to sell for and finally a system that can package supplies together that meets buyers and sellers needs and provides a profit for the middle persons who packages the logistics.

[dave4441]

I guess, when i speak of pulses I really mean lentils. Line companies have generally destroyed margins in the pea trade and that is why you see no (for any volumne anyway) act of god for yellow peas, only greens peas. Green pea market is not big enough to be ground down to elevation charges by the line companies.

[Zaphod]

I can't speak for margins but if the line companies hadn't handled yellow peas this year, there would still be a mountain of them. There were record exports this year and that wouldn't have been possible just through dealers. And that would probably mean lower prices.

[dave4441]

I do agree to a point, but how many people where agressive selling peas last summer at high values without an act of god contract???

[charliep]

Off the topic of whether to sell or not but an interesting question
always on act of god and their inclusion. Most of the time, the
way pulse price risk is managed is to match exports sales against
farmer pricing. In this process someone has to take grade risk
(reality in western Canada). If there is an act of god clause, the
grain company/processor has accepted this risk.

An observation on wheat is the insurable grade is human 2CWRS
11.5 or 2CWRS 13 (Alberta anyway) with adjustments made to
coverage levels if a farmer has crop downgraded to 3CWRS or
Canada Feed. could peas be handled the same way (insure as a
human food versus feed - know both AB and SK are a
combination but don't think there is a grade loss adjustment).

Another idea is to provide some form of grade loss insurance -
look for a third party to carry the risk (for a premium) versus the
buyer and seller.

[charliep]

Second paragraph refers to crop insurance to be clear.

[Hopperbin]

Yellows down to 4.52 pioneer and 5.23 Viterra here. My 7 dollar target expired unlocked.