Bad weather causing rail delays has limited the amount of grain the Canadian Wheat Board will accept under the Series B contract.
Because of movement problems, the board missed its December shipping program target by 800,000 tonnes.
That amount was carried over to the January program, but it will be a struggle to get the system turned around.
“Even if the railways meet the car unload targets every week, the CWB program will remain behind due to the large carryover,” said Adrian Messner, the board’s executive director of marketing.
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“The next few months will definitely be a challenge,” he said in a release last week.
Snow slides in the mountains, derailments and bitterly cold prairie weather have plagued the system since early November, making it difficult for trains to get to Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
January problems
The problem continued into January. The board’s goal for rail car unloads at Vancouver Jan. 13-19 was 3,400, but the actual number achieved was 1,634. At Prince Rupert, 1,009 cars were unloaded. The goal was 1,500.
Grain not accepted on one board contract series will automatically roll over to the next if farmers have chosen that option on their 1996-97 contracts. Those who didn’t or want to offer more grain to the board have until Feb. 28 to sign series C contracts.
Charlie Pearson, an analyst with Growers’ Marketing Services in Winnipeg, said the numbers are a sign of the shipping problems and a signal that many farmers will have some grain in the bin at the end of the crop year.
However, farmers who fully participated in the series A and B contracts should move most of their crops this year.
“If they passed on the second, then there might be a bit more of a problem,” he said.
Farmers with wheat not contracted to the board might want to look at off-board prices for No. 3 wheat, which are close to the Pool Return Outlook, he said.
Stronger wheat market
On a bright note, he said that although a lot of focus in the last couple of weeks has been on oilseeds, the wheat market also appears to be gaining strength.
That can be seen both through analysis of price charts and fundamentals such as the news that U.S. winter wheat acreage is seven percent down from last year.
