3-1 IAT Shipping Wheat

  Growing wheat is difficult enough what with weather conditions, disease, irrigation,  insects and so forth.  But now, let us fantasize and move forward the point where I, as a wheat farmer, have a fabulous crop and I’m ready to go to market. No problem, right ? All I do is harvest and ship it off to any number of anxious buyers. Hold your horses. There is shipping involved and between  labor unrest with the grain elevator operators in Portland, Oregon and the Mississippi River being at a low, which limits the number and weight of tug boats going through, there now are potential problems on the horizon. I had a long chat with the Idaho Wheat Commission’s Thereasa Waterman: “They are still negotiating the contract with unions over there and right now the unions are working without a contract but there is an agreement that they are going to continue to work but if that were to happen I guess that the green elevators are going to bring in other union workers that would load the grain but that would be a huge impact on Idaho and the Pacific Northwest if those  grain terminals were shut down in Portland because one half of our wheat from Idaho is exported through Portland but as far as what is going on with the Mississippi, I don’t know how that is impacting us because that grain is going to a different market. I know in the future they are trying to get Panamax through their and so they want to load more grain and if they are not able to do that then maybe it would shift to rail for it would have a different path that it would take.”