Bill McGuigan grows malt barley, hard red spring wheat, peas, canola, and sometimes Linola on his farm at Islay, east of Vermilion. He says the $1 more per bushel he could get for malt versus feed barley could have a big impact on his economics.

As far as McGuigan is concerned, he couldn’t get any less for his hard red spring wheat if he tried. Along with that problem, he says his input prices are sky-high, and he’s lucky to break even. He says he’s been told that wheat prices are depressed and there’s no demand, but he says, “They take all the wheat I produce, so unless there’s something I don’t know, this just doesn’t make any sense. There’s a big piece missing.”

McGuigan says he thinks if there’s a glut of grain and prices are low, then producers shouldn’t be able to move product. “But somebody somewhere is taking it, and they’re taking it cheap,” he says. “Something just isn’t quite right about the economics here.”

McGuigan, however, readily acknowledges that there’s a place for the Canadian Wheat Board. “They just need to change how they do business,” he offers. “We need marketing choice in Alberta so producers in this province can market their wheat profitably and get paid on time. And our malt barley producers need to receive payment up front for a quality product.”

Farming is a tough business these days, he says. “It’s commonly thought that everybody should have a 3,000-acre farm and a job in town. I think an open market system might make that job in town less necessary. Most farmers don’t want to work in two places; they want to farm. But when you don’t get paid a fair price for the quality of the grain you produce, you’re not receiving full value for your crop. If this is the case, well, that second job can become very important.”

McGuigan says he thinks more valued-added development in Western Canada is an important way for producers to remain viable. “Ideally, we shouldn’t ship any grains or oilseeds that haven’t been processed out of western Canada. We shouldn’t export jobs we can do at home,” he says. “We also need to be able to ship value-added product that is containerready, such as processed flour in bags. But we aren’t on the container system with the rest of the world because the board is a commodity supplier. The way I see it, the CWB is a detriment to value-added development in Alberta. The board takes the competitive edge away from us.”

If an open marketing system were instituted, McGuigan says he’d probably sell his wheat and malt barley directly to an elevator. “It would be the same as non-board grains – pick a price and haul it.”

For McGuigan, it’s ultimately all about control. “We’ve got to have more control on deliveries. It’s killing us not to be able to deliver product when we need the cash. Contracts are looking better and better all the time. They are a good move for the board, too. That way the board would know what you have and would have the buyer already lined up at a specified price. It would sure beat the system we have now. It simply isn’t working to the producer’s advantage. It’s hard to stay in business.”

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