Grain-Train Backup

Grain-Train Backup

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson told me in a recent conversation that grain farmers may be in a heap of trouble this fall and might end up having to dump their harvest on the ground. Imagine that happening. It would leave their harvests vulnerable to weather and pests. It would be an agricultural economic disaster. How could this happen? Listen to Mr. Johnson. "The problem they've got is that the railroads are inundated. They have taken on a huge new load in terms of moving oil. It is tying up a lot of power, cars and personnel. In addition, they have a significant increase in the amount of coal coming out of the Powder River Basin that is going out to the Pacific Northwest. We warned them but the railroads basically said don't worry about that, will be all caught up. We had a bad winter and that slowed everything down. The fact of the matter is that the reports that have been coming all summer long suggest that they remain very much behind schedule, they have marginally increased their performance in some cases. We've got reports of elevators being plum full, having no storage space at all available just as the harvest is starting.
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