Reading Time: 3 minutes The heated debate over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board rose a few more degrees last month with the Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) and the Western Grain Elevators Association (WGEA) accusing the CWB’s directors of not trying hard enough. GGC executive director Richard Phillips lambasted CWB chair Allen Oberg for taking a defeatist […] Read more
Oberg Criticized For Defeatist Attitude
Single Desk May End, But Debate On Its Value Continues
Reading Time: 2 minutes It may now be academic, but academics continue to disagree on whether the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk provides value to farmers. A newly released study commissioned by the board says single-desk marketing earned malting barley farmers an additional $540 million between 2004-05 and 2008-09. But a paper prepared for the C.D. Howe Institute released […] Read more
Winding Down The CWB — Whose Job Is It Anyway?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says the Canadian Wheat Board can survive in an open market, but it’s up to the board and the industry to figure out how. Ritz arrived for a half-hour visit at the board May 30 – his first-ever foray into its downtown offices – to inform officials there what he had […] Read more
Broadcasting seed only option left for some
Broadcast seeding, the option of last resort, could become the only option left to farmers struggling with wet fields and rainy forecasts. Extension officials don’t recommend the strategy, whether by air or floater, but with time running out, they’re offering their best advice for how to make it work. As of May 25, some farmers […] Read more
Single Desk To End, But When?
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s not a question of if, but when Stephen Harper’s majority Conservative government will kill the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over western Canadian wheat and barley. The Tories have promised since 2006 to abolish the CWB’s statutory single desk, but were stymied until winning 167 seats in the May 2 election, giving them a solid […] Read more
Ritz Says Pay Railways More For Better Service
Reading Time: 3 minutes Gerry Ritz, who hopes to continue as agriculture minister in the newly elected Harper government, says farmers might need to pay more for grain transportation in order to get better railway service. “We want a much more commercially based system,” Ritz said in an interview. “The odd time it’s going to cost more but you’re […] Read more
Manitoba’s goal to save homes in controlled spill zone
A “controlled spill” from the surging Assiniboine River is now set for sometime Saturday, Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said at Thursday’s flood briefing in Winnipeg. A time had yet to be announced. Meanwhile, the goal is still protect the 150 or so homes in the flood zone before the water arrives, he said. “I […] Read more
Farmers in Manitoba spill zone to be compensated
Farmers flooded by a controlled spill to prevent an uncontrolled blowout of Assiniboine River dikes will be compensated “fairly and swiftly and comprehensively,” according to Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers. “It’s a special case and it will be a special compensation package that we come forward with,” Struthers said in an interview Wednesday. “We need to […] Read more
Possible dike breach looms over Man. vegetable farms
Sandor Arendse can see and hear the big equipment preparing to breach the dike separating him and his family farm from the surging Assiniboine River, but as of Tuesday afternoon he hadn’t had any official word that he could be flooded. “It looks like I’m going to lose my home and my livelihood,” the onion […] Read more
GM Wheat Is Coming — Eventually
Reading Time: 3 minutes The need to make more money growing wheat will see genetically modified varieties commercialized in seven to 10 years, according to a leading American wheat organization. “I think this is a matter of when we have GM wheat products in the market, and not so much an if at this point,” Vince Peterson, U.S. Wheat […] Read more
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