An American farm group hopes producers in Canada and the United States can work together to
drive down the global surplus of wheat.
Kelly Shockman of the National Farmers Organization recently outlined a proposal to voluntarily trim wheat acreage next year and to hold back part of the harvest from that crop.
Shockman, a Lamoure, N.D., farmer and national director for the NFO, also hopes to see a cross-border agency that would one day market crops globally.
“The idea is to plan on both sides of the border,” he said.
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“If we can’t hang together, we’re going to hang separate.”
The idea of a cross-border endeavor arose during the Northern Plains Producer Conference, held last month in Fargo, N.D.
There was discussion at the conference of a cross-border marketing alliance, although no formal proposals were put forward.
Shockman has since had informal discussions with three Canadian-based farm groups, including the National Farmers Union, the Pro-West Rally Group and the Focus on Sabbatical farm group.
The first phase of the proposal is to ask farmers to reduce their wheat plantings by five percent next year while cutting their fertilizer inputs by 25 percent.
The producers would also be asked to keep five percent of next year’s crop in the bin until a target price for wheat is reached. The target for hard red spring wheat would be $5 per bushel.
“The co-operation of the farmer is the big unknown,” said Shockman.
The second phase would be the establishment of a cross-border marketing agency. Shockman considers that a more long-term endeavor.
A contingency plan might also be needed as a third phase, he said, in case the first two initiatives failed to raise wheat prices to desired targets.
He did not say what the contingency plan might be other than to note that it would be “something dramatic.”
Larry Bonesky, a Saskatchewan farmer and member of the Pro-West Rally Group, thinks the ideas warrant consideration.
However, the Pro-West Rally Group hasn’t endorsed the proposals, said Bonesky, who sits on the group’s agriculture committee.
“It depends on how many people would go along with the plan. It would have to be all across the western Great Plains to work.”
Shockman said the idea has not been supported by the National Farmers Organization, a collective marketing group for United States farmers.
But Peter Lorenz, grain director for the NFO, said there’s growing sentiment among American grain producers that production controls are needed.
Two years ago, the majority of producers would have shunned such an idea, he said. The mood has changed because of low commodity prices and the global glut of grain.
“I think the pendulum has swung the other way. More than half the producers feel we need some kind of production controls.”
When interviewed Dec. 9, the president of the North Dakota Farmers Union said they hadn’t debated the ideas put forth by Shockman. Bob Carlson said it would be an “incredible challenge” to get farmers to voluntarily trim their wheat production.
“I guess I would wish them good luck,” Carlson said.
Frank Dilse, a commissioner for the North Dakota Wheat Commission, described the proposal as a “nice theory.” To work, the effort would have to be global, he said.
