JANE AND I have gone back 34 years to when we first met by taking part in “Annie Get Your Gun” in Yorkton’s Community Theatre. Jane was singing in the cast and I was a back stage hand. Directed by an inspirational lady, the cast and crew turned in a show to equal any professional standard in a proper theatre attached to the local high school.

After attending several crop production meetings of maltsters, grain buyers and nutritionists, we just about have this year”s cropping plans sorted.

With an emphasis towards more healthy diets of good “carbs” and lower trans-fats, we have signed a fixed price (128.37/t), 125ha, 190t, Linola IP (Identity Preserved) contract producing polyunsaturated oil for Becel margarine.

The other healthy option crop change is growing 125ha (309 acres) of oats. These two crops are a direct replacement to reduce our area of HRSWheat by half to 300ha (741 acres). The reason: EU reintroduction of trade distorting export studies to reduce growing intervention stocks, when Canada has two years feed wheat in store and countries like India are now exporting rather than importing.

I am totally disillusioned with the Canadian Wheat Board’s lamentably poor effort selling our 2004 crop. It clings to its monopoly single desk selling for the best of the crop, while offering a feed price well short of the open market.

I recently heard our Federal Agricultural Minister Andy Mitchell failing miserably to explain Canada”s complete isolation at the GATT talks as a result of his defence of the CWB monopoly. He even upset our friends in the “Cairns Group”.

Canada has little to offer at the negotiating table to trade down EU and US subsidies. For me, the CWB is an aging sports star whose career is waning and it should be traded off while it still has a value.

richard.crewe@imagewireless.ca