CALGARY – This winter’s blast of icy air has managed to heat up farmers’ tempers in southern Alberta.
Granaries are full, local elevators are plugged to the rafters and hopper cars aren’t arriving to relieve some of the tension.
Just as the arctic blasts slowed the railways’ work in January, the chinook winds have arrived to heat up the south. That prompts municipalities to impose road bans and no one will be able to haul grain.
At Foremost, Taber, Stavely, Claresholm and all points between, farmers are angry and have started pulling their permit books as they search for companies with more space in their elevators.
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Alberta Wheat Pool agents Brad Schlossberger at Claresholm and Fred Haynes at Stavely said the CP line which serves the southern region has been plugged for a year.
“We turn it over, but we’re continually full,” said Schlossberger.
“We can never get enough space and get ahead.”
Farmer Morley Heidmiller of Stavely says so far this year he has shipped one car of malt and has another two to go, in addition to bins full of wheat at home.
“The ones I blame are the railroad,” said Heidmiller, who wants to know where the cars are.
“The wheat board wanted us to contract all our barley so they could get it out and now it’s sitting here.”
At Taber, farmers are hopping mad. Scott Moeller of Alberta Pool said the elevator usually gets seven cars at a time but has only had seven in the last month. When someone wants to deliver he tells them there’s a month-long waiting list.
“Guys need to move grain. They need cash and they don’t want to start moving it when seeding starts,” said Moeller.
Grain buyers have been told the January weather slowed the railways almost to a standstill, but Moeller is dubious.
“When it was -41 degrees here I had a lineup 3Ú4 of a kilometre long to get in my elevator. I didn’t hear one guy complain about how cold it was. All they were saying was how happy they were to be moving wheat,” said Moeller.
Trish Jordan of Alberta Wheat Pool, in a memo to country services staff, said a combination of problems led to the current situation. Frigid weather and two train derailments added to it.
She said during extreme cold, railways face more mechanical problems and locomotives generate less power so they can’t pull as many cars.
A committee struck in mid-February consisting of the Grain Transportation Agency, Canadian Wheat Board, terminal staff and railways meets daily to monitor the situation, said Tracey Thompson of the wheat board.
Besides grain, the railways are moving commodities like coal and fertilizer to fill other customers’ demands, she said.
Bruce McFadden of the Western Grain Transportation office in Winnipeg said grain has been moving at a quicker pace and as of last week there were eight vessels at the Port of Vancouver and two at Prince Rupert, down from 26 at the end of February.
For Feb. 26-March 3 there were 4,433 unloads on the West Coast.
“Those were the highest numbers that have been achieved since the fall. We’re anticipating that they will stay at that level,” said McFadden.
