It’s been a century since the Dominion Bureau of Statistics began reporting where grain was stored in the handling system
Farmers, analysts, reporters, grain companies and grain buyers have been scouring the pages of the Grain Statistics Weekly report for 100 years.
The first known issue of the report was published by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, the precursor to Statistics Canada, on Jan. 7, 1921.
Back then, the report focused on where the grain was stored in the handling system rather than deliveries and exports.
A digital copy of the archived report is available on the Canadian Grain Commission’s website.
The storage of wheat, oats, barley, flax and rye is documented on the yellow, type-written pages of what was then called the Canadian Grain Statistics report.
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Canola, peas, lentils and other crops are more recent additions to the report.
Many of the statistics published a century ago still appear in today’s weekly reports but volumes were measured in bushels rather than tonnes back then.
For instance, there were 46.7 million bushels of wheat in the handling system 100 years ago. Oats was the second biggest crop, followed by barley.
In 1950, the report got a name change to Grain Statistics Weekly, according to a timeline published on the CGC’s website to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication.
There was a three-year period where the report was not published. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics announced on the final page of the May 29, 1968 report, that it was discontinuing the publication due to a “reduction in government expenditure.”
That created an information void, said Kevin Morgan, a statistician with the CGC.
“There was nothing that people could get in terms of information unless they could physically get to the market,” he said.
The thought at the time was that the Grain Position Bulletin publication would provide enough information to fill the gap.
“The Grain Position Bulletin was not enough because it wasn’t keeping some of the key metrics of comparing previous years to the current year,” said Morgan.
So the Canadian Grain Commission moved the Grain Position Bulletin into the old Grain Statistics Weekly report and resurrected the publication in 1971 to maintain transparency and accountability in the Canadian grain sector.
In the 1970s, the CGC’s statistics team was using technologies like tape drives and card punches to create the report.
“These new technologies helped us compile and consolidate information from the many companies and delivery points across Canada,” stated the CGC on its website.
The first bilingual version of Grain Statistics Weekly was published in 1985.
The CGC “made the leap into the online world” in 1998, giving subscribers the option to access the publication online or by mail. The online version was cheaper. The print publication was eventually discontinued in 2001.
On Aug. 1, 2006, the CGC began publishing the report for free on its website, which increased viewership of the report by many people, including international grain buyers.
Morgan has spoken to overseas buyers who say they use the report to glean the necessary information to complete sales.
“Everybody benefits when that happens,” he said.
The report underwent an overhaul in 2012 and became an even more vital publication due to the loss of other reports following the repeal of the Canadian Wheat Board Act, such as the vessel line-up report published by the Canadian Ports Clearance Association.
The following year the CGC unveiled a new format that is still in use today. The report was also made available in Microsoft Excel and CSV dataset formats to comply with the federal government’s open data initiative.
Bruce McFadden, director of research and analysis with Quorum Corp., offered up his gratitude for the weekly report.
“Canadian Grain Commission data provides the underpinning of much insight within our organization,” he said in a comment posted on the CGC’s website.
“The industry connection that CGC staff has ensures better data quality and control.”
Marlene Boersch, managing partner of Mercantile Consulting Venture, and Chuck Penner, analyst with LeftField Commodity Research, also sang its praises.
“This is simply the most reliable weekly data source in Canada dealing with grain movement,” said Boersch.
“No one else provides the level of detail or the timeliness of the Grain Statistics Weekly,” said Penner.
