BOWBELLS, N.D. – The heavily worn pavement of a highway leading to the American border is evidence, some U.S. farmers say, of the amount of Canadian grain moving south.
Highway 8 runs north from the U.S. border, along the eastern edge of Saskatchewan near Manitoba. Some of the farmers who live along that piece of pavement have noticed a large increase in truck traffic over the last year. The ones who have really taken note live near U.S. 28, the American extension to that road.
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“I think the (Canadian) farmers should keep their commodities on their side of the border. It just puts more farmers out of business down here,” said Wayne Jacobson, a Bowbells, N.D. farmer.
The Harvest State elevators in Bowbells and Lignite, towns only a few kilometres south of the border, will not accept Canadian grain, as the managers say they need the space for their American customers. But many other elevators in the area will buy.
“I sold a lot of my durum to U.S. farmers,” said farmer Howard Taylor, of Carievale, Sask. “They pay me a good buck, they pick it up, and they sell down south and they make a buck as well.” Taylor said he gets calls all the time from American farmers and elevator managers looking for durum.
Bowbells farmer and businessman, Greg Mertes, worries about “what will happen in a poor price year. It will just cost us more in deficiency payments and subsidy programs for our farmers … I think the whole thing is about government and not about farmers on either side of the border.”
On the Canadian side of the border, the Railway Cafe in Carievale has heard lots of discussion about grain moving south. Farmers from the area feel little sympathy.
“The Americans went for high production instead of quality. They’re fierce free enterprisers and they’ve preached it at us for years and now the boot is on the other foot and they don’t like it,” said Jim Clow, a Carievale area farmer over a cup of coffee with his neighbors.
“Those people across the border are our neighbors – we don’t have anything against them personally,” added Roland Kerr, a Carievale farmer.
