Farmers concerned about the winter wheat languishing in their bins can take heart.
The Canadian Wheat Board says loading has begun and shipping will continue through the next three months.
“We’re actually starting to load about 250 cars of red winter for new sales, so March will be, I would say, steady on red winter,” the board’s Mark Dyck said after speaking to winter cereals growers in Regina.
April, May and June will see strong movement, he added.
The board has sold as much red winter wheat as it did last year, but farmers grew such a big crop that it might seem moving it is taking too long.
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Dyck said the 2008 harvest was about 1.8 million tonnes, up from 1.2 million the previous year and less than one million the year before that.
“We are going to sell what we’ve accepted on the A and B (contracts) and we will move it,” he said.
“But when you have that big a crop, you only have so much capacity to move it.”
The board has worked with both major railways since October to move grain to export position.
“Could we have done more (for winter wheat)? Maybe. But we would have had to have had less of something else.”
The board operates a generic red winter program and a select program, which earns a $10 premium for certain varieties at 11 percent minimum protein.
Dyck said the board has focused on shipping 25-car blocks or larger this year, but that can be a challenge because the general delivery contract is wide open.
“You may end up with one car in Swan River,” Dyck said. “You may have three cars at Booth Siding. You may have four cars in Saskatoon. You may have 100 in Brandon.”
The railways are not going to run for one car, he said. Otherwise, they would have to move 24 cars of something that’s not needed at port position.
Tendering for 25-car blocks has shown good success.
“We’re trying to sell a premium product. We also want to deliver premium service.”
Dyck said farmers sometimes don’t understand that the board has to operate within the existing system.
“I think as the select program gets bigger it will be easier because they’ll reach that critical mass (25 cars) at more points.”
Canadian winter wheat typically goes to Asian and Middle Eastern markets for flat bread. Competition in those markets comes mainly from Australia and the United States.
