Goodale Commentary – You Can’t Manage What You Won’t Measure

[notaredneck]

don't worry dec****, you'd be the last guy i'd call for that. I'd rather burn all my grain than deal with a scamer like you.

[jdepape]

Notaredneck -

Now imagine how you'd feel if my marketing
program was mandatory - like you had no choice -
you had to market your grain through me.

That's how a lot of your friends and neighbours
have felt all their life.

Now honestly, aren't you glad that you have the
freedom to choose?

[sumdumguy]

Great retort John. To think of what we put up
with for our entire farming career.

Left wing lunatics do not rule today. Just hope
our governments can continue on in a respectful
way and we can carve a prosperous path for the
Western Region.

[haveapulse]

Amen John and I do recommend to listening to that song, if only for the smile it will bring!

Harvest is approaching and that free wheat is looking pretty darn good.

[sumdumguy]

Hey guys, why dont we let the CWB and their
gang of banditos measure for us? It could be
done just like the rigged voters lists. Account
away, flim, flam and flunk!

[TOM4CWB]

John,

I truly do not get the 'Won't Measure' part.

Every action we make in business... IS a measurement. Our family, business associates and communities measure our performance.

Grain markets measure every buyers' and sellers' performance.

That is the base of our competitive free market place... where we choose to do our business... every minute of every day... and now with the internet... one mistake is found out instantly by concerned/caring folks within hours.

MP Goodale preaching that we grain growers are all fools who are not responsible for our farms, families, and communities.

How far the mighty have fallen.

[jdepape]

Tom:
The key to measuring is to first figure out a
benchmark. You can't figure out if things have
improved unless you know where you started.

And, it's a pity but Goodale doesn't get it. I have
argued with him about the true value of the single
desk - he will not even entertain the notion that
the CWB came with a huge cost - admin, higher
handling costs plus high marketing costs.

And if you refuse to acknowledge the way things
were, how can you ever truly measure where
you've gone?

Ironically, it's Goodale that "won't measure".

[wilagro]

It will be very easy to measure and assess the impact of "farmer input" with the new CWB. It will register as a big ZERO.

The fact that the government appoints ALL of the BOD has significance as we have lost ANY semblance of control over marketing and policy.

I can't ever see the government returning farmer appointed directors to the CWB so I say "piss on 'em" as selling through the present CWB is like having the "Harper government" through its lackeys control grain marketing and that would NOT be good.

[jdepape]

wilagro:

It will be easier than ever to measure the impact of “farmer input” with the new CWB.

If the CWB provides value and farmers make use of it, it will succeed.

If it fails to show value and fails to get farmer support, it will fail.

There’s no clearer measure of farmer impact.

[jdepape]

The Borg continues to contradict itself when arguing about market impact by farmers.

On the one hand they say that farmers don’t have market impact on their own – they need a mandatory selling agency like the old CWB for that. And, according to wilagro, the CWB needs farmers on the board to have any “semblance of control over marketing…” I take that to mean more of the same – we can’t influence the market without a single desk and we need farmers driving the boat.

On the other hand, the Borg will argue that in an open market, farmers will compete with each other, driving the price lower. Seems to me that that’s an argument that says individual farmers – acting in their own self interest – can impact the market.

If individual farmers can drive the price lower, it also stands that what they do can also support the price as well. Look at last year’s canola – in the spring we saw basis levels of about $14 over. Why? Deliveries were not enough to satisfy the demand. Starve the demand and price goes up.

Without the CWB control over wheat, farmers will now have a choice – sell wheat at harvest, or sell canola? And what individual farmers decide will have an impact on both. Watch for fall canola basis levels to be better than they have been historically.

And wilagro – one more contradiction. You’ve argued that the new CWB doesn’t have the market power of the old one. (And you’re right.) But now you say that “…the present CWB is like having the "Harper government" through its lackeys control grain marketing…”

The new CWB will not control grain marketing, lackeys or not. And that’s a good thing.