Canada Farm Terminals See Unsure Fate After Wheat Board

With only old, wooden elevators to buy crops around Unity, Saskatchewan, farmers like Mervin Slater banded together in 1993 to sell shares and build a modern grain terminal. The towering concrete and steel facility is one of nearly a dozen farmer-run grain terminals to spring up on the Canadian Prairies since the 1990s, offering farmers

Is History Repeating Itself?

The wheat board isn t even dead yet, but that didn t stop some Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) delegates meeting here last week from wanting to resurrect it. I ve got an idea here, Arborg farmer Kyle Foster said during a discussion about lopsided contracts favouring grain companies Oct. 27. Why don t we pool


Ending CWB Monopoly Brings Big Changes

Next August 1 ushers in what is arguably the most radical policy shift in Western Canada s grain industry since the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly was created nearly 69 years ago. Western wheat, durum and barley farmers will have marketing freedom. What then? Farmers and the industry are divided over whether it will usher in

Viterra Says CWB Can Thrive In Open Market

Winnipeg / reuters Canada s biggest grain handler, Viterra Inc., is willing to work with the Canadian Wheat Board in an open-market system and thinks the board can thrive without its marketing monopoly, chief executive Mayo Schmidt said Oct. 21. If the wheat board chooses to engage with industry to frame out a relationship and


Millions For Churchill

The Port of Churchill is getting millions of federal dollars to help it adjust to an open market starting Aug. 1, 2012. Eighty-five per cent of the total traffic, and almost all of the grain exported through Prairie Canada s only seaport, comes from the Canadian Wheat Board. Last year it exported 659,000 tonnes of

Ottawa Accused Of Revising Wheat Board History

Regardless of how western farmers feel about the Canadian Wheat Board s (CWB) single desk today, the vast majority strongly supported it when it was created in 1943 and for years after, says Duke University history professor, John Herd Thompson. The Manitoba-born academic accuses Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz of trying


Farmers Fight Farmers In Canadian Wheat Board Brawl

Mostly it has been farmers fighting the government over the Canadian Wheat Board s future, now it s farmer against farmer. Three western Manitoba producers paid for an inserted advertisement in the Manitoba Co-operatorlast week accusing the Keystone Agriculture Producers (KAP) of not working to save the Canadian Wheat Board and suggesting KAP members request

Legislation To End CWB Monopoly Being Tabled This Week

Legislation to end the Canadian Wheat Board s monopoly was to be tabled in the House of Commons Oct. 18, but the board is fighting back and is urging farmers to fight too. (Agriculture) Minister Ritz and Prime Minister Harper would like you to believe that this is a done deal, wheat board chair Allen


The Grain Trade Must Step Up

Throughout its history, this newspaper s editorial position has been that Prairie farmers are better off economically by selling wheat and barley through the Canadian Wheat Board. That has not changed, but since the board s end seems inevitable, we have recently focused not on saying don t do it but rather on emphasizing just

Letters – for Oct. 20, 2011

We welcome readers comments on issues that have been covered in the Manitoba Co-operator.In most cases we cannot accept open letters or copies of letters which have been sent to several publications. Letters are subject to editing for length or taste. We suggest a maximum of about 300 words. Please forward letters to ManitobaCo-operator, 1666DublinAve.,Winnipeg,