Gary Schmitke, a barley grower near Camrose, Alta., won’t shed any tears if the Canadian Wheat Board opts out of marketing malting barley instead of trying to operate in a dual market.
“It wouldn’t bother me one little bit,” he said. “No big deal.”
Since Schmitke is 30 kilometres away from two possible buyers, Agricore United and the Canada Malting elevator in Bawlf, Alta., he thinks there will be no problems selling his crop.
“If somebody independent wants to buy my malt for more than what the wheat board pays for it, then I’ll go over there,” he said. “That’s what choice is all about, right?”
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
Doug Martin, who farms near Lumsden, Sask., has decided to hold off on signing a new contract with Prairie Malt at Biggar, Sask., for seeding about 600 acres of malting barley.
“I don’t know what to do now. We’ll just have to sit back and wait and see what (agriculture minister Chuck) Strahl comes out with now,” he said. “If you sign a contract right now, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen by next fall.”
How marketing for malting barley will proceed if the CWB bows out is anyone’s guess, he said. He recently took a tour of the board’s office in Winnipeg and saw how new barley varieties are tested for malting purposes and was impressed by recent experiments with making barley into flour for bread.
“If we don’t sell through the board, who is going to do that for us? It’s going to be darned rough,” he said.
“Maybe you might be able to sign contracts with malt plants, I don’t know.”
Kenneth Sigurdson of Swan River, Man., said he will probably stop growing barley on his 2,000 acre farm if the CWB loses its monopoly. The last malt-grade crop he harvested was in 2004, on 320 acres. In 2005, high protein levels downgraded the 280 acres he planted into feed.
Malting barley is always a gamble, he said, because bad weather can downgrade the crop into feed grades overnight.
“Since they removed the Crow rate here, if you had a downgrading factor on barley, it became a real loser,” he said. “Feed price is just not worth it.”
At his local elevator last year, feed barley was paying $1.35 a bushel.
Sigurdson predicted that without the CWB, the United States market would eventually become saturated, and the premium on malt grades would dry up. The spread of fusarium in Manitoba will continue to keep the area’s feed grain prices low, he added.
Stan Nankivell, who plans to seed 54 acres of barley on his farm near Kenton, Man., doesn’t expect much change in the way he markets his barley should the CWB monopoly end.
“I don’t think it will make a big difference. It’ll be no different from what I’ve been doing.”
Since he started farming in 1980, he has sold malting barley through the CWB many times.
One year he sold 3,800 bu. and was pleased to receive a cheque for about $14,000.
“I just love the wheat board. I’d get a cheque before Christmas that would cut me right out of the bush.”
In past years, however, whenever his barley failed to make malting grade, he sold it to local feed mills or cattle farmers.
“I’m not really worried about it because I’m just about ready to throw in the towel anyway,” said Nankivell, 72, adding that he plans to rent out half a section this year, leaving him about 200 acres of cropland.
“But with the guys around here, it’s a pretty ticklish subject.”
