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Wheat Crop Better than Average by Terrell Williams, Freelance Writer Capital Press, October 24, 2003

BLISS, Idaho -- From July 11 to the end of September, a steady line of trucks piled up 1.4 million bushels of soft white wheat at the General Mills acceptance site in Bliss.

The huge pile, located next to Interstate 84, is an annual roadside attraction at this small southern Idaho town.

And this fall, the wheat stacked up a little higher than usual.

"I'd say it probably was better than average this year," assistant manager Chriss Smith said Wednesday.

Quite a large number of growers in the south-central Idaho area around Bliss grew wheat crops this year, planting anywhere from 50 acres to more than 1,000 acres, Smith said.

In mid-September, work began to haul the wheat by truck and by rail to mills in Portland, Ogden, Utah, and into California.

"It went to mills all over," Smith said. "It took about a month to get it moved."

The market was good as the harvest began, he said, with prices topping out at $3.40 to $3.45. Then prices dropped as low as $2.80.

"But it's coming back up now," Smith said, reporting a stronger market currently up to about $3.