HUSSAR, Alta. – After seven years and two months as a Canadian Wheat Board commissioner, Lorne Hehn is looking forward to retirement.
When he finishes his tour of duty as chief commissioner, he says he’d love to go back to the farm.
But at age 62, he is looking at retiring in Saskatchewan to make more time for family. He figures he owes his wife, Beth, that much after being involved in farm policy work since 1967.
“All my life, my family has had to give up a lot of things because I was trying to do what was best for farmers. This time it’s for us,” he said in an interview as he took a break from speaking at the wheat board’s Grain Days meeting in this central Alberta town.
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If the wheat board is restructured by parliament under Bill C-4 as expected later this year, Hehn is ready to move on to a new stage in his life.
“I have said to the minister I am prepared to stay and see the board through the transition, but that’s all up for negotiation,” he said.
Big changes
Originally from Markinch, a hamlet about 60 kilometres northeast of Regina where he farmed since 1962, Hehn has seen changes on his own family farm, as well as the world grain trade.
The farm is rented now and his grown children have gone. His son Jeff is an engineer in Saskatoon and his daughter Pam works for Northern Telecom in North Carolina.
It was a mixed farm with a large cow/calf operation and a foundation seed growing business. The farm had to be turned over to a renter as political life lured Hehn away, first as president of United Grain Growers and then to the wheat board seven years ago.
In the time he has worked at the board, he has seen major changes in the customers the board serves. China has emerged as an exporter and an important importer, while the former Soviet Union has almost disappeared as a buyer.
The wheat board services 70 different countries and Hehn has traveled to many of them.
He has watched new customers come along that no one considered 10 years ago. Chile and Vietnam are buying Canadian grain. Pacific Rim and Middle Eastern nations are looking for new wheat varieties for bread and noodles, while South American millers are standing in line to buy Canadian wheat.
Ten years ago, Brazil purchased all grain through a central government buying agency that distributed grain to millers. Price was the main consideration, not quality.
Now millers buy their grain direct and some have formed buying groups to take advantage of volume, freight rates and better prices.
“Any time you deal directly with a miller, quality becomes the prime concern. They don’t want any surprises,” he said.
Besides being chief commissioner, Hehn has been the chief persuader, carrying the board’s banner telling farmers what he has experienced and explaining the sophisticated work the board does selling prairie grain.
“I try to speak from the heart and relate to these people some of the experiences I have had and wish they could have,” he said.
“We do have one of the best marketing systems in the world with some very experienced, professional people running it,” he said.
But he is the first to admit it could be better.
While the customer base has changed, the board is evolving as well in how it does business.
As a former cow/calf man he is not surprised to see the emergence of the strong domestic feed barley market and sees less barley designated for export in the future.
“I can see a point in time when we don’t export much feed barley, except in high surplus years. That’s healthy. It means we’re doing everything right at home and reacting to economic signals,” he said.
Without reacting to demands for change, Hehn doesn’t believe the board could survive. He hopes the proposed reforms now before Parliament alleviate the divisiveness that has emerged in recent years. With 10 farmer representatives on the 15 member board of directors, the government may turn to them for advice on subjects like transportation.
“There is a real void in Western Canada in terms of general farm organizations,” said Hehn.
There is no group making collective decisions for prairie farmers who are divided by divergent opinions. He says it’s time to take the politics out of the grain industry and return to old-fashioned values of co-operation and compromise.
