White grain storage bags are becoming more popular among farmers, but so far it appears snowmobilers aren’t overly concerned about potential hazards they might pose, says the executive director of the Alberta Snowmobile Association.
Chris Brookes said association members are talking about the growing use of white grain storage bags in fields but it’s not a huge issue.
The association encourages its members to stay on signed snowmobile trails.
“As a general rule, all our members are on groomed trails,” he said.
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Brookes recognized that the bags might be a problem for riders who leave the trails.
“Visually, dealing with a white lump in the middle of a white field may be an issue. As an association we stay on groomed and marked trails.”
When association members go off trails, signed permission slips from landowners generally point out hazards.
Grant McLean, an agricultural specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Knowledge Centre, said he’s heard of no incidents of snowmobilers running into grain and hay storage bags in fields.
“They’re becoming very popular, especially in areas where there have been very good yields and the landlord or farmer doesn’t have storage on site. Storage in the field reduced the truckers and trucks required,” McLean said.
“In the last couple of years there’s been a significant number used.”
McLean said he doesn’t know if white storage bags are any more hazardous than rock piles, machinery or fences in fields.
“Snowmobilers, in many cases, have to have permission to go across their land anyway.”
Dave Nelson, an owner of Loftness, which manufactures grain bag filling equipment, said the bags are white to reflect the sun.
“Any other colour would absorb more heat,” he said, which would heat the grain inside the bags.
Nelson said bags have been used to store grain in Western Canada for 20 years and have always been white.
