Some prairie barley growers had been salivating at the notion of being able to fill their trucks with barley and haul it to U.S. elevators for big money.
But a North Dakota farm leader says the big money isn’t there, and farmers on his side of the border might have some unfriendly words for Canadian trucks lining up at their elevators.
“They wouldn’t like it,” said Eric Aasumndstad, president of the North Dakota Farmers Bureau.
“Guys wouldn’t like it if a whole bunch of barley came down here.”
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Aasmundstad’s group opposes the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly powers and was sad to see the board maintain control of malting barley sales and feed barley exports. The state farm bureau believes the board dumps barley and wheat into the U.S., thereby driving down prices.
But he said American farmers would be infuriated at the sight of individual Canadian farmers hauling their barley to U.S. elevators to capture the high spot prices that some anti-monopoly Canadian farmers believe are there.
First of all, local barley prices are poor, although recently in his area of eastern North Dakota feed barley prices have reached $3 per bushel. Malting barley prices are 15 to 25 cents per bu. higher.
Any significant number of Canadian trucks coming to capture the perceived high barley bids would depress the local market.
North Dakota farmers would probably accept Canadian farmer deliveries of barley to local elevators, but only in exchange for open access to Canadian elevators, which often have lower freight charges.
“If it was a one-way street they wouldn’t like it,” said Aasmundstad. “If there was the ability to go both ways, they wouldn’t dislike it as much.”
Some Canadian opponents of the wheat board’s monopoly believe that higher prices await growers who deliver to U.S. points in North Dakota and Montana.
But wheat board officials and monopoly supporters say these are only occasional spot bids that appear when an elevator has a couple of cars of a train left to fill. These are conditions that only a few growers delivering a few tonnes of grain could take advantage of.
Aasmundstad said barley has been such a poorly paying crop that he has abandoned it. Until two years ago his farm relied on wheat, barley and edible beans in rotation. Now it has switched entirely to corn and soybeans.
“In this area now, there’s darned little barley raised,” he said.
