Grain Dumping

NFU Calls the Ability to Deliver Grain Shipments by Rail at Harvest ‘Substantially Inadequate’ and Warns that the Surface Transportation Board Farmers May Be Forced to Dump. Grain National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson warned the Surface Transportation Board that BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific’s ability to deliver grain and ethanol at harvest are “substantially inadequate” and are resulting in farmers piling grain on the ground because of lack of transportation options.  “We are especially concerned regarding wheat, since harvest has already started and grain remains in the bin from last year’s harvest,” noted Johnson in a letter to the Surface Transportation Board chairman and vice chairman.  “While BNSF claims that the total number of late shipments of wheat has declined nationwide, 95.42 percent of all past due cars are concentrated in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. BNSF has promised to improve their performance, but we are still subject to delays and Average Train Speed at year-long lows,” the letter notes. The letter cites anecdotal evidence from four different grain elevators indicating that their oldest orders are from early March and shuttle orders are up to 2,000 cars behind. “These numbers are staggering and simply unacceptable,” he said.