Sask Wheat Pool

[winston]

How come there is no discussions concerning the future of SWP?

Any comments anyone?

What will happen if their new financing agreement does not get approved?

[melvill]

Okay........

I wonder if the rush to compete with the Big Boys in the Global Market Place wasn't the real reason that SWP is in such a disgraceful state of affairs. Once again when the SWP (and AU) rushed to seek new funds from the Stock Exchanges by going public, almost all of the decision making was taken out of the West and given to the "bankers and brokers" that are ruining the Traditional things that DID make things work out here.
AND isn't it disgraceful how the Executive decision makers of there companys still command a 6 and often 7 figure salary? IF they are doing such a wonderful job, why not let them lose someone elses money for a change and CAN the whole lot!

[carebear300]

Hindsight is always a hundred per cent but I for one should have sold my shares. I guess I could rant and rave but that wouldn't change anything. They are dust!!!!!!!!, no doubt about it in my mind. The worst part of this latest episode is all the farmers that still tried to support them and pre bought inputs for the spring without taking delivery. If the wheat pool does declare bankruptcy they will lose big time. The way things are now a days none of us can be to careful. Sometimes there is an advantage to being broke I didn't have any extra money to tie up in pre buying inputs for spring. Anybody that is surprised at the outcome should always remember the old adage,"anything that seems to be good to be true likely is" and that pretty well sums up the whole wheat pool fiasco.

[bmason]

If farmers built their farms like Sask Pool built it's 'big' system, most of us would be out of business too. To spend freely and carelessly, 'Joe Publics' money. What a shame! At least someone else will get the benefit of some nice big terminals at what likely will be 2 bits on the dollar for some brand new concrete. I don't feel sorry for them at all. The big wigs in the company should be reprimanded monetarily and terminated from their positions. What a mess!

[TJM]

The writing has been on the wall for some time now. Too bad the ones that will be hurt the most will be the ones that had little say in the day to day "spender while you got it" logic that inevitalby was their downfall.

Maybe what this country needs is a grassroots revival, similar to the one in the 20's and 30's that got all the pools started. Only this time, lets keep control of them, instead of the people that ended up with them this time.

Maybe they will pull it out the fire, but I think they are feeling the heat now, on both sides.

[TJM]

Are there enough "farmer/producers" left to have a Grass Roots Revival that our grandfathers or fathers experienced when the Prairie Pools were first formed? I think that those that are left with the acres are too caught up in their own egos to ever get along in a co-operative (NACo-op). Who then could finance those terminals? I am afraid that we have just seen the door open wider for the LD's, Bunge's and Cargill's (and ADM, Quakers, and General Mill's) to make the "Canadian " grain industry look more and more unlike what the average farmer would like it to look like.

Hopefully whoever tries it, stays away from the Stock Exchanges.

[henbent]

I believe that Agricore United is not far from going broke either. They've managed to alienate many farmers, trying to baffle us with BS, and taking advantage of the old retired members one last time during the merger. Telling us that we are #1 in their books and that they continue to give us excellent service. I for one am not going to buy anything from them that I'm not forced to! Since it is unlikely I'll ever sell grain to AU again in future, their inland terminal is to far away.

[topper]

I agree henbent this is a good example of what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you. I remember seeing lineups at the local pool elevator years back when the cargill across the road was sitting with doors wide open and no trucks unloading. The farmers had a loyalty to the pool and viewed it as their elevator. Looks like the pool management was too stupid to realize this was their greatest asset.

[henbent]

Topper, Thank you for your comments, it is the first time anyone on this site has agreed with anything I've said. It appears that most of the others in this country are cerebral and able to grasp the big picture, hence understand the modern world of farming, and bash the CWB rather than the arrogant grain companies and railways, that are about as competitive as Air Canada. Or maybe they are all asleep and dreaming!! Nuff said.

[bmason]

There's bin a lot of finger pointing and rhetoric about the build up of new terminals and knocking down old one's. The fact is, competition from abroad and from the south side of the boarder has forced alot of changes upon our lowly little Canadian system of handling grain. Government intervention, lack of planning(especially long range), inefficient transportation system, inefficient grain handling system, port workers who think they should be paid like a doctor, poor management within grain companies, the list goes on and on. The heart of the matter is......that we needed change to improve our global competitiveness or we were forced out of the game. It sucks, but here we are caught scrambling to rebuild and then drought hits! Lots of money (spend 'er while ya got 'er attitude) has been spent trying to keep up to the neighbors big concrete giants rising to the sky and all of a sudden.......wham. The bottom falls out of the market and down goes the giants who weren't really giants at all. They forgot to look ahead to see that the Ag industry has never been able to stand on it's own feet in this country without public support. It's a high risk business! The feds cut the support lines at a time when it was really needed, to help rebuild the industry and help steer it's direction. There's no infrastructure in place to guide a successful transition. Ottawa bureaucrats have their noses out of joint because nobody out west voted for them. This industry could be so great, but there are many hurdles yet to jump. Growing pains cost a lot of money and this country lacks population tax base to support it.....so the big wigs will eventually take over. What it boils down to is that there will only be about 3 players left(the one's who still have money and are diversified globally) and they likely won't be Canadian. Farms will continue to grow in size, small farms will be swept under the carpet, and we'll all be working for some giant grain company as a lowly peasant sowing the crop. It's a hard life, but it's life and we have to adapt to survive and that might mean you won't be a farmer, but hey, so what, as long as we get our three squares and can drive a nice truck and maybe live in Arizona for the winter. Who cares where the money ends up.......we're probably going to be American any day now anyway? That's a big part of the whole problem in this country.......no loyalty! No patriatism! And nobody wants to work together to rebuild this country. We have the east and the west. The Liberals and Quebec. And Ralph is ready to join the US cause the Alliance can't find a good leader. We've got a great country with so much potential and it is so young and can learn so much from other leaders mistakes.
This country needs leaders who can lead. We need winners, not whiners. Sask Pool had a spectacular vision, but neglected to build a sound plan for growth. The vision could be shattered in the weeks ahead.

[Darrell]

I was thinking about the equity of Sask pool and their debt in comparison to our Liberal Govt's billion $ version of gun control and what they have to show for their efforts. Sask Pools ideas still win hands down and at least show a concience to help us as farmers. They have made some deep changes and I would hate to see them sold out to private ventures in the future. In my deliveries to there new ventures, I have appreciated the attitude of the staff at Sask Pool and have found them very helpful. I would love to see them explore new Gen coop ideas on a community by community basis. I still feel if they could bring thier financial accountability back to the farmgate, instead of Eastern funds, both farmers and Sask Pool would be better off. Sometimes we have to be humbled before we will work together for better solutions. None of us exist without the Grace of God in so many areas of our lives. This drought has had a way of bringing a new reality to many in our community and it is good to see neighbors helping neighbors again. When a coop is a true coop, we still have more influence on it's management than a private company.