Rolf Penner sent along the following informational links on barley, barley marketing, and the CWB, starting with two recommended pro-choice links: text and 2 minute audio
He writes;
The next set of links is to a February 1st, 2007 talk given by independent market analyst John De Pape, author of the now infamous 2004 Sparks barley report, the talk is called “Show Me The Money” and runs about an hour in length.
There are high and low speed internet versions of the video and an MP3 audio available. All of these are downloadable. The farmer on the go can download the MP3’s onto their i-Pod or MP3 player and listen while feeding their cattle, hauling their grain or whatever else they may be doing.high speed video low speed video MP-3 audio
If you look at nothing else you should look at the three comparison charts Mr. De Pape has on page 9 and 10 of the PDF of his PowerPoint presentation. They are particularly enlightening for those who are concerned about what kind of prices, returns and margins they are getting with their barley.
Chart 1 … Chart 2 … Chart 3
By the way, you can have the slides up on your screen at the same time you are watching the videos, and follow along by manually clicking the pages forward.PDF of PowerPoint slides
There will also be text of a Q and A interview with Mr De Pape up in the next little while so check back with the Frontier Centre website from time to time.
And for the history buffs, there is also a fascinating audio interview that I did with Kevin Avram here on the origins of the CWB monopoly that runs around 30 minutes, and an article Kevin wrote on the subject here.
Many people have said that this thing should not be decided by a vote and I agree with them. But we are having one and the more people that vote for choice the more likely it is that we will get it. So don’t just file your ballot in the garbage, fill it out properly and send it in.
You can email Rolf for more information.
And don’t forget Marketing Choice and Designated Area for day to day updates and commentary on the CWB debate – like this;
I find the things that protestors put on signs very interesting, the second one from the left especially; “Young farmers want a future, Save the CWB!” This is somewhat ironic, considering that none of the people in the photo appear to be under the age of fifty.
(Special thanks to Larry Weber for the kind shout out to SDA a couple of weekends ago on This Week in Agriculture. I’m flattered, but doubt I’d make much of a deputy ag minister. Too much power in the hands of one with too short a temper, for starters!)
Hey where’d the CWB find that many sterno bums on the Winnipeg streets to be paid protesters…maybe thy’re out of work wheat farmers 😉
They may want to pull some file pictures from the Sask and Alberta CWB protests…there were more than 3 ‘Peg sterno-bums show up for those…and they had a vastly different message urging PM Martin to pull the plug on CWB monopoly.
The things that the media misses…go figure.
The U of Sask study that shows the CWB giving a $59 million benefit to barley growers is dead wrong in its primary asumption.
They base their beneficial projections on the fact that the CWB has no limitation on the barley supplies it has to meet the needs of the barley market.
In fact and in practise, this is wrong.
The CWB has a POLITICAL limitation on its barley sales (and wheat sales for that matter). They will not let the supplies of barley in Canada go below 2 million tonnes, except by accident. Or wheat stocks to go below 5 million tonnes.
No matter how high the world grain price goes, the CWB will pull out of the market and thereby, limit or cut grain producer incomes.
Just ask the CWB directly about their stocks policy and they will confirm this little publicized fact.
Why the U of Sask study doesn’t take this fact into account is beyond me.
The CWB absolutely will not make any sales after they arbitrarily decide that the stocks of grain are getting too low.
How many times have you heard of some farmers with bins full of barley or CWRS #1 high protein, and the CWB cannot (will not) move it?
The precise answer that the CWB gave in one of their Grain Matter publications a while back, was that when other countries allow their grain stocks to get too low, they wind up importing grain back into the country at a higher world price to cover their domestic needs. And the CWB has a mandate to not let Canada get into that position.
The thing to note in this answer is that is it is NOT the grain farmers who would have to import this grain, but the food processors or end users.
So in fact, the white shirts of the CWB capriciously sacrifices the incomes of Desiganted Area grain producers to meet the need of cheap food of the 20 million central Canadians. This fulfills the number one mandate of the CWB.
Clearly the CWB is run ‘for the benefit of all Canadians’ all the time, and just sometimes for the benefit of grain producers.
This also demonstrates how the CWB has been used all these years to transfer agricultural wealth from the western Canada to central Canada where the main population lives.
Grain producers are just considered pawns to be abused by the usually Liberal politicians of the day.
Vote for choice so that you, the grain producer, can decide when to sell your grain.
And you won’t miss the top of the grain market again.
In the links above John DePape explains why the U of S study, that the monopolists hang their collective hats on, is bogus.
What the profs did was take all the board sales divided them up on a country by country basis and then averaged the prices. Low and behold they found that certain countries like Japan paid on average higher prices than countries like China.
This is the proof they say of so-called ‘price discrimination’, ‘market power’ and ‘premiums’.
Not so fast says Mr. DePape, it is not unusual to find that some countries are more price sensitive than others. Japan buys all the time and doesn’t really care what it pays, China is a bargain hunter and only buys if there is a deal of some kind. The board has no influence on any of this.
If you plunk any other crop into the U of S model you get exactly the same result, canola, oats, flax, you name it. The study in other words shows\proves nothing, it is a dud.
The monopolist\collectivists provide the smoke while the U of S provides the mirrors.
CWB indirect barley subsidies by supply control…hmmmm…
Keywords for your search:
IMC (was dominion malting)
Lesaffre
Inbev
While the data you have on the CWB requiring holding stocks in Canada is true the conclusion you draw from producers having grain they cannot move is false.
Southwest terminal for example (a small independently run (but partially owned by Cargill)company) has a storage capacity of over 40,000 tonnes. Now add up all the elevators terminals you see around you, the port terminals too. All of that together far exceeds the several million tonne stockpile with room left over for other crops.
Second the CWB markets the grain based on the amount tendered for contract. They periodically produce contract calls so that there is adequate grain in the system to feed the port terminals and fill the orders that ships are in port for. This is done throughout the post harvest crop year, and might be slower that producers want. Currently 100% of Winter wheat, 80% of 1 and 2 HRSW and Durum, 100% of all other HRSW, and Durum have been accepted through the A contract. (the remaining percentages can be role into the B contract. Acceptance levels for the B contract are usually put out soon. Unaccepted carryover stocks are likely to be minimal this year as in most other years. (a glaring exception being durum last year)
100% acceptance means they will/must eventually call for it in this crop/shipping year. As for the only 80%, the CWB still has a B and a C contract that they accept more grain from.
Third. While 80% of the A contract was accepted in 1 and 2 Durum, only 70% has so far been called. But wait I cannot haul much to my elevator yet. Less than 20% of my durum has been hauled. Why? My elevator won’t take it because they already have significant stocks. This is because of the (confusing) model used by grain companies, the railway and the CWB. Not just the CWB. My elevator cannot get the cars they request, or they use them to ship a different priority than mine, or they are unwilling/unable to bid high enough to receive a tender or some such.
These people are either to stupid to get it or they are complicit in skimming off the top for themselves. If its mine, ITS MINE. Keep your scummy liberano hand off.
What ever happened to the Pearl Barley market that canada used to have. Haven’t heard the words Pearl Barley for years. We used to grow it, and were extremly happy when we finally got to ship a car. One year we shipped, and were waiting for our cheque. We waited and waited, and contacted our elevator agent. Said it was coming. After 6 mos fighting off the collectors, our agent finally put a trace on our barley. It had been sitting at an abandened siding in Sask for 5 mos. How did it get to Sask, from AB, on its way to the west coast. The explanation, it was mistakenly transferred as a car being taken out of service. Wonder how many other cars of grain were lost during that time. And what was really planned for all that “missing grain”. This was put down as an isolated incident, but we had no way of finding out how many isolated incidents across Canada there were. And, how many of those cars were filled with wheat instead of a specialized grain. There was a common saying in all those years, re elevators, we can absorb the dockage, it is the tookage that is killing us.
your use of common technology to get the word out is impressive Ms Kate.
congrats and keep up the good work.
iPods will soon be optional on all farm vehicles !!! LOL !!!
Glad to see in that photo that those boys are so concerned about us younger farmers. They really feel that they are protecting us from ourselves.
Checked out saveourcwb website tonite. Those hypocrites. They whine about Harper spending gov’t money to end the cwb. Yet how much cwb money [mine] has been spent to support it? All the glossy publications and studys etc over the years.
Who will pay the costs re demurrage ect because of the CN strike.
Just like back in 2001 when they cut off water to the KLAMATH BASIN AFRMERS to supposdly save a pair of worthless trash fish and the repercaions agsinst it were insantanoius and backfired in the faces of the eco-freaks
…with apologies to real farmers…do these guys even know what the initals WCB stands for?