Letter to the editor-WP

Rolf Penner- There is a good letter to the editor in this weeks Western Producer by Carol Husband  on what the wheat board didn’t tell you about the supposed premiums they got you last year.

Propaganda?

Larry Hill’s Aug. 21 letter is a great example of Canadian Wheat Board propaganda.

He boasts how western farmers will receive over $7 billion from grain marketed through the CWB in 2007-08. Hill would like farmers to believe that this is thanks to the CWB.

However, it was due to higher world prices, something the CWB had nothing to do with.

He says these higher returns include revenue due to CWB pooling. He says this “extra $560 million was calculated by comparing the spring wheat and durum pool returns with the U.S. weighted average farmer monthly receipts, published by the United States Department of Agriculture.”

But there’s a lot he didn’t say. Did he mention that USDA data covers the U.S. crop year beginning in June? And that the data is incomplete since the crop year wasn’t over when the CWB did its comparison? No, he did not.

Not only does this data cover a period inconsistent with the CWB pool period and the Canadian crop year, it doesn’t even cover the complete crop year.

Did he mention that the CWB is comparing the pool return for number one CWRS 13.5 percent with USDA data that includes prices for lower grades, which of course will have lower prices? No he did not.

Mr. Hill also states that “a disciplined pooled approach to marketing … resulted in significant benefits for producers.”

Did he happen to say how the pool return compares to the average CWB selling price quotes for the year? No, he did not.

The final PRO is almost $2.72 per bushel below the crop year average of the CWB’s spring wheat selling prices and $6.10 per bu. below the crop year average CWB durum selling price.

The final PRO is roughly the same as the CWB’s average selling price at harvest time in September. So, through the best efforts of the CWB, western Canadian wheat farmers ended up with harvest time prices.

Using the CWB’s preliminary indication of 2007-08 pool size, western Canadian farmers received $2.1 billion less for their wheat and durum than just average-price returns would have provided.

I question Mr. Hill’s choice of words. This is clearly “significant” but I fail to see any “benefit.”…

The CWB must stop the propaganda and simply tell it like it is. But maybe if they did, CWB marketing performance wouldn’t look good, and that explains the propaganda.

But it doesn’t excuse it.

- Carol Husband,

Wawota, Sask.