Initial payments for spring and winter wheat from the post-single-desk CWB in 2012-13 are to be cranked up to about 75 per cent of the expected total pool return.

The former Canadian Wheat Board said Tuesday it plans to combine "ongoing government guarantees" with its own risk-management strategies to increase the new-crop initials.

The federal government, whose Bill C-18 legislates an end to the CWB's single marketing desk for Prairie wheat, durum and barley starting with the 2012-13 crop year on Aug. 1, has already committed to continue its "unconditional and irrevocable" guarantees on CWB initial payments and borrowings for the next five years.

In recent crop years, the initials for spring and winter wheat have been set at about 65 per cent of projected returns.

For grains other than spring and winter wheat, the new initial payment levels will depend on risk assessment, but will still be higher than in previous years, CWB said.

As in previous years, adjustment payments will be paid to farmers "as sales progress and final returns can be projected with more certainty."

"Farmers want more of their pooled returns up front, so we have taken steps to satisfy that need," CWB CEO Ian White said in a release.

Cash out

CWB on Tuesday also announced it will offer a "pool cashout option" through which farmers can get a fixed and final payment on delivered grain.

The pool cashout option will provide full payment on delivered grain "at values determined daily, based on market conditions."

Those values will be available on the CWB website, starting Aug. 1.

CWB -- which now does business under what used to be its abbreviation -- said it will provide "highlights of relevant current market conditions and new-crop price considerations" in the meantime.

Those updates will be available through the New-Crop Market Monitor page on the CWB site.

Related stories:
World weather boosts PROs for CWB's 'highly sold' pools, June 29, 2012
CWB raises wheat, durum initials, June 8, 2012