The Canadian Wheat Board wants all feed barley growers to work with their local elevators to deliver by May 26.
In a notice to farmers Thursday, the board said that to meet its sales commitments, it needs barley growers to delivery 100 per cent of their feed barley tonnes by that date, after which it said delivery opportunities will be “extremely limited.”
Farmers with a producer payment option (PPO) contract should make sure their cash ticket indicates their PPO contract number, the board advised. The CWB said it will issue the additional payment within 10 days of receiving cash ticket information from the grain company.
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The Western Canadian Wheat Growers, a pro-deregulation farm group and frequent critic of the CWB, questioned the timing of Thursday’s call in a release Friday.
“I had plenty of time to deliver barley when snow was on the ground two weeks ago,” said Stephen Vandervalk, the group’s Alberta vice-president.
“If they had put out a special price then, I could have considered it. Now with time running short, all our farm resources are dedicated to putting the crop in.”
The group said buyers of non-board commodities don’t have to plead with farmers to deliver, but rather just improve their prices until they get the supplies they need.
