Saskatchewan Pulse Growers has released an 86-page transportation report it hopes will soon put pulse crops on the right track.
The report calls on the pulse industry to develop a better system for determining its rail car needs and to regularly communicate those needs and other issues with major players such as the Canadian Wheat Board and the railroads.
Those are two of the four “critical issues” that author Dick Dawson chose to highlight out of his 18 recommendations.
The other two he identified are for the pulse industry to push for a more commercial and contractual transportation system, and for Pulse Canada to add transportation issues to its mandate, which up until now has focused on developing export markets.
Read Also
Ag In Motion 2025 draws strong attendance, more international visitors
Three clear days meant Ag in Motion 2025 saw strong attendance and a significant increase in international visitors at the large Saskatchewan outdoor farm show.
This is the second transportation report commissioned by the pulse grower group in the last three years. The first one was used as the basis for two presentations to justice Willard Estey’s review on grain transportation.
“We saw little success out of that, really,” said Garth Patterson, executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. “Pulses weren’t much recognized in Estey’s report and we weren’t involved in (Arthur) Kroeger’s panel of discussions at all.”
He said Dawson’s report, which was completed in October and released in January, should lead to results.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers has already formed a transportation committee that is developing an action plan to implement the recommendations.
The 11-person committee chaired by Pulse Growers vice-president Glenn Annand includes consultants Dawson and Paul Beingessner as well as representatives from the processing and shipping sectors and the three prairie pulse grower groups.
Patterson said the committee has already met and established some short-term goals stemming from the report.
Pinpoint needs
The first task will be to survey Canadian pulse exporters to determine their quarterly, semi-annual and annual rail car needs. Information will be delivered to the railways to help forecast capacity requirements by train run.
The survey will be conducted in such a way that competitive secrets will not be revealed.
“We’re going to be taking an industry approach, not doing (projections) for specific companies,” Patterson said.
The second step will be to discuss the report with industry players. Saskatchewan Pulse Growers will retain the services of Dawson for at least one year to lead those discussions.
Dawson hopes to meet with representatives of the two major railways in February and with other participants in March.
The March meetings will include the Western Grain Elevators Association, the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Grain Commission, the Canadian Transportation Agency and federal and provincial ministers of transport.
Other short-term objectives include making a submission to the Canadian Transportation Act review panel, developing a map of pulse processors by train run, and communicating the committee’s activities to pulse shippers and exporters.
One of Dawson’s more intriguing recommendations is for Saskatchewan Pulse Growers to “examine the concept that all bagged food pulse shipments that use boxcars or intermodel equipment over wharves, might be excluded from the railways’ grain revenue cap calculation altogether.”
He said two-thirds of Canada’s pulse production is food crops, while the other third is for feed. Feed shipments travel in bulk using hopper cars and country and terminal elevator facilities.
Shipping method
But the food pulse industry isn’t a regular grain business. Shipments move in bags loaded into boxcars, containers or intermodel vans. At the port, the pulses are transferred into marine containers and loaded directly onto ships.
“As the food pulse business does not use any country elevator system, the designated hopper car fleets, or the terminal elevator capacity, one should question why the railroads have to include these shipments in the grain revenue cap.”
Dawson said railways would rather move bulk grain than higher-cost bagged shipments “that eat up the revenue cap.” He implied if bagged pulse shipments were outside the cap, they might receive better rail service.
Patterson called it Dawson’s “most controversial” recommendation and refused to comment on it beyond saying that the committee will collect more information on how the revenue cap is calculated.
