ANDREW, Alta. – The Canadian Wheat Board is looking at paying instant cash for barley to help ensure its supply, said wheat board commissioner Ken Beswick.
“We know we’ve got a big problem in feed barley,” Beswick told a group of farmers during the wheat board’s grain days here last week.
Last year the board had a difficult time filling its export barley sales. Because the price farmers could get selling their barley to feedlots or maltsters was high, few farmers wanted to sell barley to the board and wait for a final payment.
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The board is looking at offering a cash price for barley, as well as the regular pool price, to help encourage farmers to sell barley to the board.
Beswick said offering a cash price would make the board a “stronger marketer.”
Because the board’s job is to sell barley overseas, it may be able to offer a higher price than domestic buyers can offer, said Beswick.
At today’s prices that would mean farmers could be paid $200 a tonne or about $4.35 a bushel, compared to $3 to $3.50 a bushel at some feedlots, he said.
“If they can get a contract for $4.35 barley, sure I’ll sign up,” said Rick Anderson of Lamont, Alta., who has not sold barley to the board before.
Know what to expect
Like many young farmers, Anderson, 28, needs his grain priced early to ensure he has money to pay his bills. He can’t wait until the Canadian Wheat Board knows what its initial and final payments will be in the pool account.
“Fifty percent of my crop has to be committed. I’m not going to grow a crop and hopefully someone will sell it for me,” he said.
The board will make a decision on whether to offer a cash price in a few months, after it listens to farmers during the meetings and gets a report from the federal government’s grain marketing panel.
