One of the few things on which I am an expert is pricing. If you're out of product, there's a good chance that you set the price too low.

I will be growing more soybeans and perenial rye grass(for golf courses) this year and cutting back on wheat. If the price of oats wasn't in the toilette I could get away from wheat and the parasites at the Board all together, maybe next year.

FIRE. THEM. ALL.

Here's a novel idea for the CWB. How about going out on the open market and try to BUY wheat for the price they are paying the Prairie farmer.

Yes we all love the board. I sent a snotty letter off to them about their durum marketing program and I was instantly moved to the front of the list for an audit. After the audit was done and I had extra grain I asked if this could be included on the A series contract which I know they have done for some people but my request was rejected. So don't f--k with big brother. I was also told by a board flunky that they could sell more durum but it would push the "Price Down"(leaving 40% of the crop in the bin will really help the cash flow and carrying that much into next year will be a burden with the extra supply)....This from the wizards that lost 250 million last year trying to short a soaring marktet. We grew it to SELL IT so to my friends at the board get off your asses and get to it. With the greatest regrets you are the only show in town.

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The CWB has done more to reduce wheat production inwestern Canada than any thing else as (potential) producers have moved as much as possible to non-board crops especially in Alberta where feed barley and canola are king.

I was a pedigreed seed grower for over 20 years.The reason that I was a pedigreed seed grower was to by pass the CWB.If I hadnt by passed the board,I would have had to quit farming and do something else.I had neighbors that did exactly that.

How do you like socialism so far?

maybe them investment types in T.O. ready to "incorporate" reserve land on the prairies will get a WCB indoctrination..........

For anyone here who's wondering about the source of CWBites', er, "inflexibility": What sustains them is the conviction, "the farmers always fall back into line when grain prices plummet."

That's why anyone who complains, in a manner that gets under their skin, is treated as a suspect. 'Special pleader', in other words.

Sad to say, but the only protest movement that'll threaten them is one that demands dissolution when grain prices have already slumped. That says, in no uncertain terms, that the CWB is more straitjacket than safety belt.

OK, this might sound a little stupid, as I know nothing about wheat.....but can someone answer a few questions for me.

W T F IS THE GOV'T DOING IN THE WHEAT BUSINESS? WHO WAS THE BRANIAC THAT CaME UP WITH THIS IDEA?
WHO IN THE GOV'T STILL SUPPORTS THIS CONCEPT?
WHY IS THIS IDIOTIC ORGANIZATION STILL IN BUSINESS.

WHY IS THIS IDIOTIC ORGANIZATION STILL IN BUSINESS.

Because the majority of producers want it to be in business.

I will be growing...perenial rye grass(for golf courses)...cutting back on wheat. If the price of oats wasn't in the toilette I could get away from wheat and the parasites at the Board all together...Farmer Joe

Farmer Joe will be subsidized to grow grass for golf courses. Parasites? Pot? Kettle?

philboy I don't know if grass is subsidized but I would prefer to pay for grass instead of a boards fat a*s.

Because the majority of producers want it to be in business.

Then the majority can have it, and the minority should be able to walk. Heck, you can even open it up so the "Canadian" Wheat Board can service those in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

What a ridiculous notion this is -- a free country demanding that certain farmers sell their product to the state, who will then sell it as they wish.

What a ridiculous notion this is -- a free country demanding that certain farmers sell their product to the state, who will then sell it as they wish.

Not to get bogged down in too many inaccuracies, but the state doesn't buy the product, the CWB markets the product.
It may be ridiculous, but it is also true that if most prairie farmers wanted the CWB gone, it would be gone.
There are many ridiculous things in this country.
Subsidizing Farmer Joe to grow golf course grass is one. Subsidizing Sky Boxes and business lunches is another. Subsidizing religion yet another. Why isn't Freemarket Steve doing something about it?

If the CWB was, on balance, a beneficial organization for wheat producers, two things would have already happened long ago:

1. Producers outside of western Canada would be lobbying aggressively to gain access to the board.

2. Eastern politicians would be bending over backwards to accommodate point (1).

Neither has happened. Neither is happening. Neither is ever going to happen.

There is a term in law, res ipsa loquitur: the thing speaks for itself.

I can get a subsidy for growing perenial ryegrass? That's news to me, where do I sign up?

As far as what the majority of farmers want ten years worth of CWB surveys say...

http://rolfpennerforcwb.com/2008/10/22/ten-year-cwb-survey-trend-on-wheat-marketing/#more-141

And if the wheat board isn't buying my grain how does it enter into contractual agreements with other parties and why are the cheques signed by the CWB? The answer is because it is the single desk BUYER of wheat and barley on the prairies.

Don't worry, FarmerJoe, philboy is just talking out of his ass. Of course farmers do not get subsidized for growing grass. I'm betting he has never seen the inside a barn, nevermind worked on a farm.

As for his comments that the "state" doesn't buy or sell the grain, he can call it anything he likes: When the state passes a law that says only one organization, accountable to the government, can purchase wheat from three provinces, I'd say they are the buyers.

It doesn't matter if the majority want the CWB, phil, feudal serfdom should not exist in Canada. If one single solitary farmer wants out of the CWB, that should be his right.

Four years income at a price of over $20.00 dollars a bushel for wheat last year makes a few relaxing years in jail look not too bad now. Maybe add rent on top of that and a free Conrad Black course in business. Just like the investment bankers. Just kidding.

I should know this, but do you have to be a permit book holder to vote for board members and in the past (and future) de-monopolizing plebiscites?

Not any more, but the piece of paper you have to fill out is a royal enough pain in the kester that not many guys bother. Especially considering no matter how they vote the final say still belongs to the politicians in Ottawa who don't give a rat's rear end about a prairie farmers bottom line or basic human rights like the right to property.

Not signed up, Joe? For AgriInvest, for instance? C'mon....Who you trying to kid?

Get rid of it but don't come whining to us taxpayers for help if the whole shithouse burns down. You can't have it both ways.

Most of you on this blog are not farmers. Let them decide.

Please show me the specific line in Agri-Invest where it says we (government) will pay farmers X? dollars per acre or per tonne to grow perennial rye grass.

It's all online so it should be easy for you.

BTW- All of you genius's whining about subsidy/bailouts, how does getting $60 a tonne less than the world price for our wheat help that whole situation? You're arguing that if we actually got paid more from the marketplace we'd need more subsidies. Give your head a shake.

They already did.
There's nothing in them.

ok4ua

the farmer from moms basement in trona

I have a question that nobody has ever answered for me.

If wheat is $3 in Sask. and $4 in the open market , who are the fools who would pay $4.

Many thanks if you can answer this.

puddin n pie, could it be possible that on Indian land when the farming is done by Indians there is no Wheat Board jurasdiction? Why else would anyone want the headache, I know a lot of reserve farmers, it is not easy to deal with the band.

Shouldn't the western MPs be pushing for every wheat grower in Canada to have to sell their wheaat to the CWB? I mean if it is such a great organization, shouldn't membership be manditory.

Perhaps then the east might get it. Maybe. Then again maybe not, but if those producers were forced to sell their product at less than world prices (as the west has been forced to for decades) their bitching just might be more audible in Ottawa.

The fools are not allowed to buy from the Sask farmer directly they must buy from the wheat board who will no doubt be glad to sell it to the fool for say $3.50 take it's cut and then give the farmer $3.00 while telling him he just got a premium because of all the "market power" the Board has.

Any Sask farmer who tries to sell to the fool will end up in a 4x8 concrete cell with a new spouse named Bubba.

This could be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back - if the natives can ship their wheat directly into the US for a better price, all hell will break loose.

OK, although I worked with farmers in southwest Ontario, I'm completely confused by this.

If there's such a huge disconnect between prices from the CWB and the nearby US market, why aren't arbitrageurs buying wheat from the CWB and reselling it in the US and pocketing the difference? Can someone tell me why, technically, this isn't happening?

If the CWB undercuts the US market by too much with too much grain it triggers trade actions. If western farmers were free to sell their grain to whomever they wished the threat of arbitrage would bring the local prices up to the US or world prices. But since they aren't the Board can get away with undercutting the market price to make its sales which it trys, as much as possible, to do in countries other than the US.

I always have to laugh at the CWB pretending that they are the best grain sellers in the world and that farmers couldn't it for themselves.

Selling grain is the world's second oldest profession and any grower of grain can do it.

The CWB is guilty of practising the world's oldest profession.

Farmer Joe:

You haven't really answered my question. What specifically and technically prevents me from buying grain in, say, Vancouver, putting it on a container ship, and then selling it in the US for market prices?

Kevin,this only applies to wheat and barley that comes from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and a tiny sliver of BC. It is called the Designated Area. If you want to buy wheat or barley from the designated area to sell into the States you have to buy it from the wheat board. This includes the farmers who grow it.

The wheat board has a special plan for farmers for this called the 'buy back'. You can only buy your grain back over the current 30 day period and the price you have to buy it back for, most of the time, doesn't make it worth your while to do so.

It is the wheat board that controls the export licenses and the price people pay for the prairie grains mentioned. Third parties looking to do this on farmers behalf also don't find it a viable thing to do.

That's the long answer. The short answer is that it is the Canadian Wheat Board that prevents the arbitrage you're talking about from taking place.

If I sell my wheat to the CWB and then buy it back,I MUST pay the freight to Vancouver or the Lakehead even tho the wheat NEVER leaves the elevator.