The Rural Voice, 2003-07, Page 44News in Agriculture
Big wheat crop could cause headaches
By Sarah Mann
With 2 million tonnes of wheat
expected to be harvested in Ontario
this year, a big topic of discussion
has been how much wheat has to
move and how it's going to be dealt
with.
Jennifer Chateauvert, a grain
merchant at Cargill, was a panel
discussion member at the 12th annual
red wheat industry day on June 19
held at Pike Lake golf course in
between Harriston and Mount Forest.
She said patience, planning and
communication are what to keep in
mind.
It's been said that 40 laker
freighters of soft red wheat pool "E"
has to be moved out of the province
to make room for everything else.
Because the wheat crop is 10 days to
two weeks later than usual, and
because beans have gone in a little
later, there will be a "terrible"
squeeze at the back end of the crop as
September arrives.
Chateauvert explained that a lot of
people are thinking from the
producer level through the elevator
level, of keeping some wheat back at
home or in bins and then moving it
after the dust settles.
The problem is, everyone is
thinking that.
Even with a relatively small wheat
crop last year, there was still a tight
squueze and when September came,
everyone was trying to squeeze
wheat out of their bins so they could
get white beans and soy beans in.
"This year," Chateauvert said, "is
going to be twice the challenge as it
was last year. Waiting until
September to do anything is probably
not a good choice unless you have
something arranged in terms of a
delivery point and delivery time
frame just because the squeeze at the
last half of harvest will be so much
tighter than the first half of the
harvest."
If you have wheat board wheat in
your facility and you wish to move it
to a processor, terminal, or agent, you
need to have a release from the wheat
board in place before that happens.
But, just because you have that
release doesn't mean there's going to
40 THE RURAL VOICE
be space for you, she said.
The wheat board has been quite
clear in saying they just in charge of
issuing the releases, and not in charge
of logistics.
"There's no gaurentee that the
processor, agent, or terminal will be
able to handle whatever you have a
release for during the time you want
it," Chateuvert warned. "Planning
ahead is key, communicating ahead
is key, and just have some patience."
Off -board wheat is a little easier
because a release isn't needed to
move that wheat to another agent,
processor, or terminal but "things
will be extremely busy so patience
and communicating for timing and
deliveries would be very beneficial."
Chateauvert stressed that the
biggest thing for everyone to
remember is to have reasonable
expectations.
"We've heard the numbers, 2
million tonnes crop," domestic
demand is 450,000 tonnes, "so
you're still left with moving over a
million tonnes of wheat out of
province."
If you're relying on truck
transportation and haven't already set
up your trucking alliances, do so
now.
"Everyone and their brother is
going to be calling for trucks and for
once there won't be quite enough to
go around ... if everyone would just
take a deep breath and be patient,
everything will move a lot
smoother."
Peter Johnson, from the OMAF,
was also on hand to speak about
current production issues.
Johnson said in order for this wheat
industry to work at a decent wheat
acreage in this province "we need to
be able to access things like the 25 R
26 program, or Christie going into
Toledo and we need to be able to
access more of the bread market."
Johnson said the soft white class is
going to continue to decline "unless
we stop sprouting because unless
there's a $10/mt differential between
soft red and soft white, then why
would we grow soft white, it does not
make sense."
That trend will continue, he says,
"until we start getting paid for what
we're growing."
The trend with spring cereals is
also going down and that's because
they can't compete with corn.
"We can grow 120 bushel corn on
the same land as 70 bushel barley —
does not make any sense"
Johnson thinks the spring wheat
acreage is going to continue to
increase at the expense of barley and
mixed grain.
"We're seeing less and less small
livestock farmers growing their own
mixed grain because we're going to
more and more big livestock
operations. That trend just makes
sense to me and it's going to make
the grower more money."
The panel chair was Art Froehlich,
a western Canadian farmer, from Ad
Farm.
Froehlich gave a western
perspective and also talked about the
future for agriculture in general.
Farmers in western Canada have
planted wall to wall this year and the
bins are empty.
Right at the end of the planting
season, funding programs shifted
with the outbreak of BSE. Because of
this, some barley was being
converted to late season canola and
oats, "but we've got a pretty good
crop coming this year after a couple
of really tough years and in some
cases in northeastern Alberta and
Northwestern Saskatchewan, it's
been four years since farmers had a
crop there."
When it comes to wheat, Froehlich
said, bio -technology is a bit of a
controversial issue.
"I will predict that the genie is out
of the bottle on bio -technology. It
will be a major, major player in this
[agricultural] industry in the future,
including wheat."
He also predicted that Asia will
accept genetically modified crops
and foods within three years but that
Europe will take a little longer. "But
I think within five years we're going
to see a global acceptance of this
particular technology."
Another issue Froehlich thinks will
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