12/17/08 Grain producers' concerns

Idaho grain growers have some concerns as they prepare for the 2009 planting season. The new President of the Idaho Grain Producers Association is Winchester farmer Eric Hasslestrom. He says the current economic crisis has put some uncertainty into the mix because of the credit crisis. Will banks be willing to loan money to producers? HASSLESTROM "Well ag has always been a fairly risky, one of the more risky loans. Hoping that they'll look at agriculture favorably and work with most producers." Hasslestrom grows wheat, barley and hay on 24 hundred acres and he also has about 110 head in his cow-calf operation. Like everyone else he had to face high input costs this year but he says that the marketing education growers have been getting in recent years helped many of them. HASSLESTROM "We've been preaching to help spread your risk by forward contracting and using the futures markets, trying to hedge some of your fertilizer costs and fuel costs and I think most producers now are pretty educated in that." He says he hopes none of them sold when commodity prices were down and bought fuel and fertilizer when those costs peaked earlier this year. Tomorrow, his concerns about the days ahead in Washington DC. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott