Canadian farmers will be able to sell their barley to any domestic or foreign buyer as of Aug. 1, ending the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on the crop, federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said Monday.

Strahl made the announcement at a farm near Headingley, Man.

Farmers will still be able to sell their barley products to the wheat board, which will continue to pool it, the federal government said.

Ottawa will continue to guarantee the wheat board's borrowings and initial payments.

Gordon Wilson, who farms near Kindersley, Sask., is pleased with the news; he's lobbied for years for the right to sell his barley to anyone he wants.

"I'm happy. It's the way I want it. I've got options out there," he said. "I have no animosity to the wheat board. It's my personal view that … they haven't been paying us what our barley is worth for the last two growing seasons, but you know, obviously if everybody else could step up and market their barley I would assume that the wheat board would be able to do that, too."

Farmers to file legal challenge

The Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board is planning a legal challenge to the change. The group told a Winnipeg news conference that it will go to federal court to have Strahl's order-in-council removing barley from wheat board jurisdiction declared null and void.

The challenge is being led by 12 barley producers from across the Prairies, with Anders Bruun, the group's lawyer, arguing the government's action in the matter is not legal.

"The shortcoming in this particular case is that the government is not following the law as established by Parliament," he said.

Bruun represented farmers opposed to an open barley market in 1992, a case that farmers won, and the Canadian Wheat Board regained control of barley marketing.

Bruun expects the case, which will be heard in federal court, could take as long as five months to be resolved.

Barley market strong

Ian McCreary, a farmer director with the wheat board, says the group is disappointed the government refused to hold off on making the changes until next year.

"The real unfortunate part of that is we're probably in the best malt barley market that we could have been in, if they would have allowed this cycle to flow through."

In March, about 62 per cent of the 29,000 barley farmers in western Canada said in a mail-in plebiscite that they wanted the choice of where to sell their barley — or they wanted the board out of barley marketing altogether.

While some farm groups have applauded the move to give producers a choice in where they can sell their barley, the wheat board has called the move political interference.