The PDQ grain price-listing site is simple, which might make farmers happy.
But the Alberta Wheat Commission and farm leaders hope that by adding a little more complexity, the website can have a greater impact, while remaining usable.
“We want to get basis in there,” said Lynn Jacobson, the president of Alberta Federation of Agriculture and a director with Alberta Wheat Commission.
“People are out of line with each other,” he added, referring to the divergent basis that various companies have.
AWC hopes “additional functionalities” will be part of PDQ “certainly before the end of the year,” said AWC general manager Tom Steve.
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Those additions include allowing farmers to set their own preferences, choosing what type of prices they see on the page.
It should also include a basis calculation, comparing the spread between futures prices and cash prices.
That also involves adding a currency conversion function, which could either put U.S. futures into Canadian dollar terms, or take Prairie cash elevator prices and convert them to U.S. dollars.
“We want to link those prices directly,” said Steve.
While the AWC wants to expand what PDQ shows, it also wants to make sure it doesn’t get too cluttered and challenging to use.
Steve said “ease of use” was one of the key elements when formulating PDQ.
