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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GOOD READ THROUGH
AND THROUGH
Editor,
Iam enjoying your magazine. The articles
are well written and thought provoking.
The Grain Game in the Spring 2014 edition
was an in-depth look at farming in today’s
changing markets and displays a wealth
of information. The two-page illustra-
tion is very well presented, with a lot of
researched information. Well done! I look
forward to reading future articles. One pos-
sible idea could be The Great White Com-
bine—what’s being done to prevent hail
damage? Does it work? Can it be extended?
It could become the farmer’s friend.
David A. Harris
Calgary, AB
Ag’s future is bigger,
better, brighter
Editor,
M any of us went through a really tough
time as grain and land prices rose
dramatically from the late ’70s and then
grain prices crashed in the mid- ’80s. Peo-
ple had capitalized the higher grain prices
into their land purchases and cash rents,
similar to what we see today.
Cash payments from governments,
changes to the Western Grain Stabilization
Program (WGSP), the need for revenue in-
surance and many other ideas were floated.
At that time, we did see a shift from the
five-year average under the WGSP to an
annual Gross Revenue Insurance Program,
and we saw creditors like Farm Credit
Canada create a “commodity price” loan
where your loan principal could increase or
decrease based on commodity prices.
At the end of the day, most of those quick
fixes did not work out and all were discard-
ed for various reasons.
We did lose a number of farmers who
were overextended and couldn’t hold on
until prices returned to normal. But we
also saw many young farmers persevere
through either extending loan payments or
downsizing. Many of them came through
stronger and smarter and knowing that
everything does move in cycles.
Some of you may be in this situation,
given where yields and prices have gone
over the past little while. Some of you will
need to tighten your belt to get through,
others may need to restructure somehow.
But this too shall pass, and the long-term
outlook is still better than ever for those of
us in primary agriculture!
Richard Phillips,
Canada Grains Council president
Winnipeg, MB
YOUR INTEGRITY IS ON THE
LINE WHEN MARKETING
Editor,
As we finish up this year’s harvest—
and now have a chance to read
GrainsWest —it is natural for all of us to
either feel satisfied with the past produc-
tion season or, if we have had timing and
weather issues, we could be very relieved
to be done for another year.
And now it’s on to marketing and plan-
ning to get value for this crop. From my
experience, the best idea is to not delay.
This doesn’t mean you have to have it all
sold today and out the door tomorrow; it
means knowing what you have stored in
your bins and making sure the product is
storing well. As you sign sale and delivery
contracts, make sure your buyer knows
exactly the quality they are dealing with
so no surprises will surface; they also
have to store and sell this production into
the market.
Quality control in storage starts when
you are filling the bins during harvest.
Hopefully you were rigorous with accurate
sampling of each truckload being unload-
ed. Check the bins weekly so if things
change, such as the temperature or smell,
you can deal with this quickly before the
loss of grades or—even worse—an entire
bin spoils. As we keep seeing larger bins
constructed and the addition of grain bags
into the storage mix, these protocols are
even more imperative.
Marketing will always be a challenge,
but the bottom line is to make sure the
crop that you are representing for sale is
exactly what you say it is. Your integrity
is on the line of being a reputable supplier
of products to our Canadian agricultural
buyers and, in turn, to our customers
around the world.
Richard Stamp
Enchant, AB
AD INDEX
Alberta Agriculture and
Rural Development. .............................03
Alberta Barley Elections...................... IBC
Canadian Canola
Growers Association. ...........................25
Canadian International
Grains Institute. ..................................IFC
CAP....................................................03
CleanFarms. .....................................OBC
Joint Meetings. ...................................IFC
Olds College Brewery. .........................03
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