A group of farmers in northwestern Saskatchewan has organized with an eye to shipping grain in producer cars this year.
That’s assuming they manage to harvest any grain worth shipping, which in their part of the world is no small assumption.
Farmers in the region north of North Battleford have had three consecutive crop disasters and little grain has been shipped out.
It looked like that was going to change this year, until an early frost and poor harvest weather set things back yet again.
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That has left members of the recently formed North West Rail Car Co-operative Ltd. crossing their fingers and praying for good weather and good luck.
“Hopefully we’ll get going this year, but the way the weather has been, it’s really disheartening,” said co-op co-ordinator Bob Colliar of Meota, Sask.
“I’d still like to believe that if we get two or three weeks of good weather we’re going to have a lot of grain to haul.”
The co-op will organize producer car shipments from 10 loading points along 300 kilometres of track leased from Canadian National Railway by Prairie Alliance for the Future, another grassroots organization.
Loading points include Meota, Edam, Turtleford, St. Walburg and Paradise Hill on the Turtleford and Bolney subdivisions and Glaslyn, Spiritwood, Medstead, Rabbit Lake and Mayfair on the Robinhood and Amiens subdivisions.
Once commitments are received from farmers wanting producer cars, the co-op will co-ordinate loading times. PAFF will then contact CN and arrange for equipment and crews to pick up the cars and haul them to the railway’s main line running through North Battleford on a fee-for-service basis.
Co-op chair Glenn Tait of Meota said farmers have been “supportive but non-committal,” with only 15-20 paying the $50 membership fee.
“We’re hoping to get a lot more members but we can’t get anybody excited about it yet because nobody has any grain,” he said.
Farmers won’t start thinking seriously about shipping their 2004 wheat until it’s safely in the bin and they know more about the quality, he added.
“If it’s feed wheat and there’s not too much of it, maybe we’ll have to wait another year to get people excited.”
Colliar said while the sign-up rate has been slow, he thinks the co-op could expect to ship 1,000 cars in a good year, representing more than 80,000 tonnes of grain.
“I’m still hoping we can do 400 this year, but it all depends on Mother Nature from here on in.”
Co-op officials say producer cars can save farmers more than $10 a tonne in handling fees and reduce the wear and tear on local roads, which will reduce maintenance costs for local governments.
As well, farmers who join PAFF will be eligible as shippers for a terminal rebate of $121.50 a car.
