Our 2010 oat crop turned out fairly well. Judging by eyesight and feel of hand, I estimated bushel weight at 38 to 40 pounds.
With over 50 years farming experience, I have had a little practice at this. Weather damage was not a serious factor. It should have graded a No. 2 milling and certainly no lower than No. 3 milling.
I took the samples to three grain buyers and they indicated bushel weight was to be 34 lb. per bushel and they stated that it might make a No. 4 milling but sample grade was a possibility.
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In previous years this would have posed no problem, as I would have taken this sample to the Canadian Grain Commission office in Melville, who would have graded the sample and served the role of a neutral umpire with power and authority to make decisions when a grading dispute arose between a farmer and a grain buyer.
That option is no longer available to me as the federal government has closed down the Melville CGC outlet. In fact, I believe there are only two CGC offices left in Saskatchewan.
Grain producers have little choice but to deal with the few multinational grain traders that control open grain marketing on planet earth.
These powerful corporations adhere to no morality. They have no conscience and to them truth is irrelevant. Their main and overriding concern is to keep their shareholders happy, those who reap even though they do not sow.
Many years ago the CGC was created to protect farmers from these powerful, unethical grain corporations. We need the CGC more now than ever before.
George E. Hickie,Waldron, Sask.
