Idaho Grain Market Report to continue

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

POCATELLO – The Idaho Grain Market Report, which has been delivered by email to subscribers weekly since 1995, will continue under the new administrator of the Idaho Barley Commission.

Former IBC Administrator Kelly Olson, who retired in early August, created the report in 1995 when she realized there was no grain market news in Idaho despite the state being a major wheat and barley producer.

The report has come out every Thursday since 1995 with the exception of Christmas, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July.

“Even when I’ve been on vacation,” Olson said. “I remember doing the report in Botswana.”

When Olson announced she was retiring, there was some question whether the report would continue.

It will.

New IBC Administrator Laura Wilder said the report was the first thing Olson began training her on when they began working side by side in June.

Wilder said she was taught Olson’s weekly research routine “to ensure the successful continuation of the report.”

The report covers barley, wheat and corn trends, supply and demand information, prices and other market information.

“This (market report) is extremely important and helpful to our growers and many have come to rely on it for important marketing information,” Wilder said. “While there is a lot of market data available from different sources, there is nothing else out there for Idaho growers that reports as much comprehensive relevant grain market data, trends and information, including current Idaho prices.”

More than 1,100 people subscribe to the free report, including people around the globe, foreign embassies in Washington, D.C. and major grain producing companies.

The report, which is delivered by email, has been used in a number of official capacities, including, because it collected price information over a long period of time, to help build and improve barley crop insurance programs.

Olson said creating the report is time-consuming “and that means you have to be disciplined, you have to collect information and know what’s going on every day of the week in your market. But it’s helped me be better at my job because I know what’s going on in the market.”