Demand for producer cars among prairie grain farmers is up sharply this year, according to figures from the Canadian Grain Commission.
The commission received applications for 17,095 producer cars in the first 34 weeks of the 2013-14 crop year, which is roughly double the number requested during the same period in 2012-13.
“Demand for producer cars is very high,” said CGC producer car officer Garth Steidl.
“As of Week 34, we were 80 percent higher in our cars (processed) … and in our total cars, we were basically double last year.”
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The commission has processed 4,897 requests and forwarded 11,695 to railway companies. Growers cancelled or rejected 503 requests.
Steidl did not say how many cars the railways have spotted.
“We don’t track that.”
Farmers are already requesting producer cars for the 2014-15 crop year, which begins Aug. 1. They hope that submitting applications now will give them access to spotted cars by the time the crop is harvested.
However, the grain commission issued an email last week informing growers that applications for the new crop year will not be accepted until further notice.
“Normally we will set a date in July … when we start accepting applications for the new crop year,” Steidl said.
“We want to have a level playing field so that everyone in the industry knows that we are accepting applications on (a certain) … day and we’ll go from there.”
