CWB Director Meeting

[bbrindle]

CWB Director meetings are being held in over 30 towns. We've had a thorough report from District 2. Has anyone attended a meeting in any other towns? Just a few sentences or comments would be welcome.

[parsley]

This is an account of the District #8 Meeting in Saskatchewan, Brenda, It was e-mailed to me by someone reliable who was there and took notes. I didn't attend any of the meetings in Sask or Alberta or Manitoba, so these are not my notes.




District # 8 Wild Wheat Board Meeting in Saskatchewan

Growers were shaking their heads and wondering was there ever a wilder Wheat Board meeting in history after it was finally over.Yes, the meeting in
Weyburn on March 6. The big McKenna Hall there was virtually full, estimated at over 200, and the discontent simmering through the prairies in this time of farm crisis, boiled to the surface. High profile farm radio personality Jack Dawes fought hard to maintain order

Trying to answer a barrage of questions, Wheat Board spokesmen including
CWB Chairman Ken Ritter kept protesting that the CWB believed farmers were continuing to signal that they wanted the monopoly to continue. Yet grower after grower protested that every bit of evidence including many polls,
indicate increasing numbers of growers want out from the monopoly.

The CWB's Ritter said the board is focusing on several issues today.
The auditor-general is now looking at the Board's accountability on grain
matters. And Adjustment payments from Ottawa are being looked at in detail.

Newly elected farmer directors Rod Flaman of Sask. and Jim Chantney of
Alberta who both favor an end to the monopoly, and freedom for growers who
want it, were prominent at the meeting, . And Chantney particularly was
outspoken and critical of many of the monopoly's programs and actions,
presenting an unyielding voice.

"Yes," he admitted, "I am a renegade, I always resist authority....if its bad.
I do step out of line. I want to get a voluntary board as quickly as possible."

He outlined his goals. "Thousands of farmers are forced to participate in
the Board's programs today. Its not voluntary. But it must become voluntary.
Growers want choice. I want the board to be there for those who want it for themselves. But it won't be around if we don't act soon. The present board will self-destruct."

One unidentified grower answered what appeared to him a smug, everything-is-fine answer from a board bureaucrat, crying out, "Look at all of us here. We are white-haired. Not a young farmer among us. You have driven all the young farmers out of Saskatchewan. The province's population hasn't increased in 50 years. There is little left."

Some growers there favored the monopoly. But they stayed largely quiet
in this noisy meeting. And in discussions later, a few growers estimated that
two thirds of those there were exasperated at their lack of freedom, and wanted the monopoly ended.

Chantney said, "We must stop this constant bickering. We want voluntary
marketing. Retain the monopoly for off shore sales only. And begin
issuing no cost export license upon request.'

He told a story to illustrate his point. "On my farm, I have a big yellow
dog. I own him. But I have no control over him. He won't do what I want him
to do. He is always in the road. I've got to feed him. I call him Wheat
Board. "

One Board spokesman suggested growers were better off farming in Canada than the U.S. Well-known Grower Herb Axton, responded, "I would like to farm south of border. They have 275 elevators in the state south of me. "

As Board reps tried to answer questions, growers felt they were talking in
circles and were evasive. Growers began shouting, things like "That's not
true," or "That simply isn't believable," or "It doesn't work that way at all."

Organic grower Bill Reece, Stockholm, Saskatchewan, spoke out, "You must tear down this vicious buy-back law and let us go!" And organic grower John Husband, Wawota, Saskatchewan, said that despite its protests, the CWB does have the power to free growers from the monopoly if it wants to. And in fact, he said it doesn't have the authority under CWB Act to deny growers the licenses ." In his research, he has found that the CWB misrepresents the act.

It became blazingly clear in that meeting that CWB officials and the growers
are on totally different wave lengths, that they simply couldn't talk to one
another.

[TOM4CWB]

Well,

I guess this shouldn't surprise anyone, especially after the CWB is being so ignorant about Durum and Organic, and District 8 is big Durum and Organic country!

Every time the CWB takes on a specific group like Organic growers, durum growers, feed barley growers, they get sucked deeper and deeper into this black hole they have created for themselves!

I can’t believe they actually are so ignorant!

Now that the non-board feed barley market is significantly higher than the PRO, the CWB has opened the C series feed barley 100% before they even accepted it or finished signing up for it.

So here we go again, the CWB is short of feed barley! About all they will get now is seed screenings at about 35lb/bu!

On the CWB feed barley program, I would like to see if anyone had something good to say about a program that they got sucked into paying money to receive less money than everyone else!

Is the CWB sending the message the they are not interested in marketing feed barley this spring or summer or what?

The initial price increase virtually wiped out any advantage the program gave!

As I see it, it was a value adding work project for CWB staff, was there any comments from anyone at any meeting about this program?

[chas]

Jim Chatenay, Parsley, T0w4cwb, rockpile and Allansmith y'all seem to want the USA border to disappear and that would solve all of our problems. But I believe that we don't know what problems are until we open that border. Mr. Chatenay states that the CWB be kept just for off shore sales. I say all export sales to make it easier to keep harmony with one seller. Lets go after the domestic open market to create jobs and industry in downtown Saskatchwan. Don't let the CWB dump grain back into the domestic market. Lets export value added. We need a definition of value added. Chas

[ianben]

Hi Chas
I must agree with your point about the US according to the last figures I saw each US farmer on recieved $14500 in aid and benifits. The corresponding figures for Canada was $9200 and $9500 for EU.
Why you think US will grant easy accesss to this highly subsidied market, when you are FREE. I fail to see?
I know their is a trade agreement but I bet there is some loophole or regulation if large volumes of Canadian grain move South.
OR THE PRICE WILL JUST FALL IN THE US.
Thank-you Canadian farmers we are now all worse off.
We must co-operate we can help one another to a better future.
Regards Ian

[AdamSmith]

Chas, I'm Adam, my grandpa was Alan, that must have been what confused you.
All kidding aside, I don't think anyone believes opening the border will solve all our problems but there are some very specific problems that it will solve. Like the lack of price arbitrage that exists as was mentioned in the winter wheat thread I started earlier today. The way I see opening the border is that I won't have to take my grain south because the world price will come to me.

Today Canola, Oats, Peas etc. can all be delivered and sold directly into the U.S. I know many farmers that deliver canola to the crusher at Velva ND and there is no fuss there are no protests from American farmers. It isn't the amount of wheat or even that there is wheat at all going into the U.S. that upsets American growers, it's how it is coming across and who is doing it. It's the CWB Chas, not the wheat itself!

The American farmer knows that if I as an individual sell my grain into their system I'm will sell at current market price, I have no incentive to sell for anything less, why would I sell for $3.90 bu. when they're offering $4.00?

But what the Americans don't know and are highly suspect of, is that the CWB will sell to a buyer at a discount in order to make the sale. The CWB can do this because they have no aquisition costs. The CWB also has the ability to sell large volumes into a single market and suppress the price. Even the biggest farmers can't manage thos types of volumes.

Back to the Canola, although I don't sell to Velva myself, I am always monitoring the price their offering and never sell to the local grain companies when thier prices are substantialy lower than Velva minus the cost of getting grain to Velva. When thos prices come into line the opportunity to sell into the local market is now attractive.

WHEAT would work the same way!

Within a fifty mile radius of my farm with the exception of a few, all the major grain companies have new terminals. Even with an open border my grain stays in Canada because that price would be here as well.

Surely you can understand that logic?

The American price is the world price and whether I sell wheat 20 miles south of the border or 20 miles north of the border will have zero, I repeat zero effect on price.

AdamSmith

[chas]

Adam: Sorry I insulted your grandpa. Just kidding. Now Adam theres some logic I had not heard before. I finally found someone who could actually explain what they thought was going on over the border crossings trouble. If it could be proven that the wheat border has been dumping into the USA and lowering our ability to get a world price. @#$*&^%#%^&%$ sorry I shouldn't of said that. You boys down along the border are not getting the message to us farmers who are in the perma frost. We cannot help with change in the board if we don't know the problems. We thought you were just crying because you couldn't cross the border for some small niche market. Thanks that gives me a whole different point of view on the CWB. The Americans have taken the CWB before the WTO eight times over dumping charges and lost but that doesn't mean they were not right.What would be the CWB's motive. Chas

[TOM4CWB]

Chas,

I can vouch for what AdamSmith is saying!

I shipped about 20,000bu legally in 98 and 99, and at times the pooling account paid me up to $17.00/t to do the shipping!

Now I do not do this because,
1. I have done a commercial volume of wheat through the buy-back, enough to prove my point that the CWB is guilty of subsidizing sales into the USA.

2. The fixed price contract has releived some of the pressure to get away from the risk of the pooling account. However, the CWB is pocketing big time money and depositing it into the contingency fund.(so much for doing sales without taking a margin!)

3. The freight in the US market is much higher than in Canada, to get to export position. We need to get our competitive position through our strengths, the low Canadian Dollar, low freight rates, and high quality products. We should be doing much better than we are now.

4. Our customers will take the grain off our hands, at any price the CWB will sell for, especially at discount prices. However they must ask a big question about signing up premium long term contracts with us:

A. Will the CWB be around in the long term? Instability kills premium marketing plans!

B. Are we a reliable supplier that can deliver the product at specific times, efficiently, and sustainably?

C. Are we supplying the products that create value for our customers, or are we selling grain that is convenient for us to grow and market?


All of these factors have really nothing in the long term that pushes my grain towards the US border, as long as the Canadian system of grading and grain handling is efficient and extracts value for our farms and our customers both.

Well, lets hope we can stabilize things and get out of intensive care, we are only hurting and kidding ourselves if we beleive the Canadian marketing system is healthy. We need an operation most urgently to help us get us healthy again!

[ianben]

Hi Adam and Tom
I must admit the job the CWB is doing for you guys, and me as well, if it is lowering world prices is terrible.
I agree the US price is the world price
so it will be their reaction to your reforms that will affect the price.
What do you guys think that will be????

Regards Ian.

[AdamSmith]

To Chas and Ian, I tries to answer your inquiries in the "WHAT IS CWB AQUISITION PRICE" thread.

AdamSmith