News
Returns low despite record grain prices
Figures for 2008 indicate grain prices were still near an all time high, yet according to Canadian Wheat Board officials, prices are on their way down, meaning crops grown in 2008 will not fetch the same revenue when sold in 2009.
December 18, 2008 By Regina Leader-Post
December 18, 2008
Saskatchewan and Canadian farmers are receiving record prices for their grain crops in the 2007-08 crop year, according to final figures released by the Canadian Wheat Board.
But the joy farmers are feeling about those record high final prices, announced recently, are being diminished somewhat by information about declining commodity prices that suggest the payments to farmers next year for crops grown in 2008 will not be nearly as big as the payments for crops grown in 2007.
"We're very happy with these record payments,'' said Dale Heenan, who farms west of Regina.
But the boom in prices was "just too short-lived'' and has already ended with the sharp drop in prices in recent months, Heenan said.
Maureen Fitzhenry, the manager of media relations with the Canadian Wheat Board, said prices for grains have fluctuated significantly.
"We're seeing record revenues,'' Fitzhenry said.
Farmers might have been somewhat better off in the golden years of 1973 and 1945 when prices were also high and when the costs of inputs were lower than in 2007, Fitzhenry said.
But the raw prices in 2007, unadjusted for inflation or input prices, were the highest on record, Fitzhenry said.
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