Global Warming

[charliep]

Mistake above. The $192 was a Red Deer price. Lethbridge was $203/tonne.

[charliep]

Should also note that one of the reasons that barley prices stayed down (keeping in mind some of the fusarium issues raised) is the Alberta livestock industries ability to import US corn - if the price of barley got too high, the feedlots in southern Alberta import corn. The livestock industry also has the ability to sell cattle and hogs south (realizing there are issues there including mcool on the way). All the grain wants is the same rights the livestock industry has.

[parsley]

I was reading with my glass eye, grass, sorry.

Governments cannot pander to both livestock farmers and grain farmers at the same time. Isn't that what this thread is really all about?

If grain is cheap....grain farmers suffer and cattlemen laugh all the way to the bank.

If grain is high, grain farmers laugh all the way to the bank, and cowmen suffer.


Can't have it both ways.

Governments...every one of them...know this, but in the past, grain farmers have supplied cheap cheap grain, until they are on the verge of not growing feed grain.

Either the price goes up for grain farmers , or the cows learn to eat recycled plastic/ or foreign grain.

Governments cannot service both industries. And that is why the CWB, and their legislated power, must be trashed... to even the playing field.

Parsley

[charliep]

May as well add onto my tirade on market signals.

About 1 MMT of feed barley was exported in the first six months of the pooling year. The exports were a combination of feed barley sold during the open market period (likely the vast majority) and feed barley contracted during the fall on the first series CWB feed barley guaranteed delivery (contracted late Sept/early Oct - delivery Nov). What ever the volume of the GDC makes up the amount sold at $280/tonne port. Implication - delivery opportunities were restricted.

Will note that the PRO for feed barley over the Sept, Oct and Nov. PRO forecasts was $254/tonne port. The PRO only started to rise in Dec and finally ended $26/tonne higher in the finals. I note the disparity in prices between the time decisions were made and actual results were reported.

About 1.5 MMT of malt barley was delvered/sold over the same period. The PRO over this whole time period has been about $280/tonne port in the case of two row and around $260/tonne in the case of 6 row. This compares to $280/tonne total payments "A" series barley. Implication - For the second year in a row, feed barley payments could be above malt barley ones.

US corn - Any feedlot in southern Alberta who could read an Canadian barley S&D likely booked corn last fall at close to $4/bu. Add on $1/bu basis and convert to tonnes creates hedged feed supplies for most of this last winter at $200/tonne (track Alberta). Domestic feed barley consumption Aug 1 to Mar. 31 was about 5.3 MMT, down 1 MMT from normal.

To highlight what Parsley said, the objective is to have open and visible prices for both livestock and grain farmers. Grain farmers get the sharp end of the stick today. Longer term the implications is barley is a less profitable crop relative to other alternatives mainly because of the marketing system and acres decline in response.

[grassfarmer]

BINGO Parsley! even with your glass eye you seem to be able to read what the others miss.

"Governments cannot pander to both livestock farmers and grain farmers at the same time. If grain is cheap....grain farmers suffer and cattlemen laugh all the way to the bank.
If grain is high, grain farmers laugh all the way to the bank, and cowmen suffer. Can't have it both ways."

Well apparently at the moment we are being told that we can have it both ways. Eliminating the CWB will increase grain prices for farmers and apparently it will also lead to a healthier livestock industry presumably because grain prices will fall.
So before you succeed in getting the CWB trashed you maybe need to be sure which side is being lied to.

[TOM4CWB]

Grassfarmer,

I don't get it!

If you use NO Feed grains... and have a domestic grass fed market... why are you a CWB booster... and telling me I am a fool for needing the same marketing opportunity as you already have? ( NO export license or domestic restriction in marketing your produce.)

Just a tad hypocritical... to force my family into a corner you don't encounter!

Glad your cattle are doing well for you, and that you have a system that works for you Grassfarmer!

How about letting grain farmers have the same marketing freedoms you say make you profitable?

[parsley]

Grass,

There isn't a Government that won't lie to its' people IF there is a tax prize or a votes-prize at the end of the lie.

The thing is this grass...From Day One, the intent of the original CWB Act in 1947 came into question by the Premier of Manitoba, Stuart Garson. He pointed it out several times in his correspondence...that if the CWB went into place, the livestock feed needs would be met , but at the expense of grain farmers.

At that time, the Government wanted cheap grain so that Eastern livestock men...chicken, turkey, pork and sheep and beef, IN EASTERN CANADA would be fed and handy to slaughter right close to Toronto and Ottawa etc.

So, from Day #1, the intent was to have cheap feed available for livestock , after the war.


Grain farmers need to distance themselves from Government legislation.

Look at the Argentine farmers.

There isn't a political party in Canada that wouldn't TAX grain exports OR meat IF they thought they could get away with it.

The CWB is merely an instrument of the Government. We cannot afford to keep the CWB in place. They are bad financial news for DA feed growers.

Parsley

[TOM4CWB]

Parsley,

"We cannot afford to keep the CWB in place."

If we don't care enough to do anything about the CWB... and folks like 'Grassfarmer' are amused by the CWB... why dismantle a perfectly good winter entertainment facility!?

We wouldn't want to get 'brain freeze' ... we must keep that 'hot blood' flowing... what better way than letting us 'amuse' ourselves... and get cheap food to boot!?

[parsley]

Succession.


When rural kids add up the wheat and barley numbers, and then tally the livestock numbers, and then consider the risk, isolation, de-ruralizing of hosps and schools etc. by governments ...well....


....all the negatives spell "Don't pick farming."


So grassfarmer types end up with the multinationals he hates, owning all and .......yup....farming


Ironic, isn't it?

Parsley

[jensend]

and it's all the fault of the cwb. lol.