By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) has taken over responsibility for issuing the dry bean stock report, which contains useful information for dry edible bean producers.
The report was restarted in 2006, after a hiatus of approximately a five years. When it was initially restarted after the interruption, the Michigan Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) was doing it.

These reports are needed because dry bean stocks are not included in the USDA Agricultural Statistics Board system of grain stock reports. The MDA is getting its information from reports supplied to it monthly by elevator operators in the state.

“The report gives you a total of what’s available for the entire year,” said Bob Green, executive director of the Michigan Bean Commission. “The supply can have an influence on price. Without the information, farmers are just guessing” on how much beans they need to grow.

An excess of bean stocks one year could mean a lower price for the next year, according to Green. In 2001 people in the industry decided to stop doing the report because other states weren’t doing it.

“We were telling everybody what we had, but they weren’t telling us what they had,” Green said. “You show yours, and we’ll show you ours, it’s that kind of thing.”

During this period North Dakota, which is now the country’s largest producer of dry beans, didn’t do a stock report, but started publishing one a couple years ago. Also, California has started publishing one and people in Michigan are trying to get dry bean producers in other states that don’t produce a stock report to start doing so.