by Rolf Penner                          

 As of today’s closing prices the CWB fixed price contract is a full Buck a bushel lower than what can be found in Bottineau, North Dakota for new crop spring wheat.

Alton Grain Terminal is offering $5.84 Canadian(.94cent$exchange)per bushel for October 31 delivery.

The CWB fixed price contract backed off to Manitoba ($55.20\tonne) is $4.82 per bushel.

The pool price comes back at $4.21 per bushel.

That works out to a net negative premium of between$1.02 and $1.63 per bushel going back to the Canadian farmer thanks to that wonderful CWB monopoly.  That works out to a $20,000.00 loss for every 500 acres of wheat planted if you assume a 40 bushel per acre yield.  Multiply that over the 16 million acres planted in western Canada this spring and it’s a cool $640 million dollars out of the prairie economy.

Can you feel the love? Or does some other emotion come to mind?     rolfpenner@agripost.ca