The grain was ready.
The sites had been picked.
The cars were on order.
But late last week there was still a lingering unease among
Saskatchewan farmers who had organized a producer car shipment of wheat
on Canadian National Railway’s Turtleford branch line.
Their anxiety was exacerbated by the date the rail cars were scheduled
to arrive.
“It just happens that it’s supposed to be coming on April Fool’s day,”
said Mervin, Sask., farmer Floyd Jorgenson. “I’d hate CN to phone that
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morning and say, ‘April Fool’s, we’re not coming today.’ “
CN spokesperson Jim Feeny let loose with a belly laugh when told of the
farmers’ concerns. He then offered these reassuring words: “Our goal is
to operate 95 percent according to our plan, so it is certainly our
intention to operate on April 1.”
The Turtleford branch line runs from North Battleford, Sask., to St.
Walburg, Sask. A train hasn’t been on those tracks since August 2000,
said Jorgenson, one of the organizers of the producer car train.
“There is actually branches starting to grow on the line. It’s a branch
line now,” he joked.
“The other day a crew came up the line and cleaned all the sidings. Now
people are actually believing the train is coming. But originally it
was a very hard sell.”
As of late last week, 23 farmers were planning to participate in the
33-car shipment. Approximately 109,000 bushels of No. 1 Canadian
Western Red Spring wheat were to be picked up by CN at four locations
along the branch line.
Jorgenson estimates the farmers will save more than $30,000 in
elevation charges and other fees by using their trucks and augers to
load their grain directly into producer cars.
The grain will be shipped to the Port of Vancouver where it will be
unloaded at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s export terminal. The Canadian
Wheat Board is administering the shipment for a fee of $90 per car.
Board spokesperson Rhéal Cenerini said this is something the agency has
only been doing for a few months.
“With consolidation in the grain industry there were some producers who
were no longer in a position to have grain companies administer their
cars because there were no grain companies in their immediate vicinity
or else they were captive to one particular grain company.”
Jorgenson said the wheat board has been helpful throughout the whole
process, which is more than he would say for the grain companies that
own sidings along the branch line. Those companies wouldn’t let the
farmers use their sidings as loading points for the producer car
shipment.
If it wasn’t for CN allowing the use of its siding in Mervin, the
project would never have gotten off the ground. Twenty-three cars will
be loaded there, four at Edam, three at Turtleford and three at St.
Walburg.
Jorgenson said the purpose of the project is to prove to farmers that
they have choices when it comes to shipping their grain.
“It gives us one more option instead of having to grow the grain and
haul it to the first cement elevator along the road.”
But some farmers are worried about the impact shipments like this may
have on the two Pioneer Grain Co. Ltd. elevators that are still
operating on the branch line.
While the long-term impact is yet to be determined, the short-term
effect of the producer car shipment has been invigorating for
communities along the branch line.
St. Walburg residents jokingly suggested they were going to erect a set
of bleachers and wait for the train to arrive. Others were pleasantly
surprised by the bump they felt under their truck tires when they drove
over a railway crossing. They had become accustomed to the smooth feel
of an unattended rail line.
“Even the buses were phoning around to each other saying, ‘Watch out
for the train, it could be coming,’ ” said Jorgenson.
Yet on the fateful day, Mother Nature had one more trick to play in
keeping with the April 1 spirit. A dump of snow arrived March 31 and
the cars were rescheduled for April 2.
