The Canadian Wheat Board has made changes to its fixed price and basis
payment contracts for all wheat and feed barley, hoping to make them
more useful to farmers.
This year, the basis payment contract prices will relate to the three
major American wheat futures markets.
Last year, the basis contracts were all based on the Minneapolis hard
spring wheat contract, said CWB information officer Rheal Cenerini.
That price reflected No. 1 Canadian Western red spring wheat with 13.5
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percent protein.
“Then there were a series of adjustments that were put in place to kind
of back it off to price the other contracts,” he said.
In the revised program, the board will match grain types to the futures
exchange that is most appropriate.
So hard red spring wheat and extra strong wheat will be based on
Minneapolis, red winter wheat and Canada Prairie Spring classes will be
based on the Kansas City exchange, and soft white spring wheat will be
based on the Chicago exchange.
“That gives a farmer a higher degree of accuracy in the way the basis
payment contracts work.”
The board also made the feed barley fixed price contract that was a
trial last year into a permanent program. There is still no program for
durum.
