By Nigel Maxwell

Farm group projects record yield, but worries about ability to ship it

Aug 22, 2018 | 10:00 AM

Despite some heat stress on crops in recent months, overall yields are expected to be very high across Western Canada this year, according to the Executive Director of the Western Grain Elevators Association.

Wade Sobkowich has projected this year’s crop to be in the area of 70 million tonnes, which would be just below last year’s crop of 72 million tonnes. Sobkowich said he did not anticipate any storage issues.

“Farmers have enough capacity to store a full crop on farm, I know some farmers have some grain in the bin from last year and they are probably looking for some delivery opportunities between now and when the harvest comes off,” he said.

Sobkowich said his main concern remained with the ability of the rail companies to get the grain to port. Both CP and CN have committed to move 5,500 rail cars each week until December or January when the temperatures get colder. At that time the companies will then move to 4,000 per week.

“That’s the same as they offered last year so if you are looking at the complete picture we are looking at a crop size similar to last year and we are looking at rail car capacity that’s similar to last year,” he said.

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In accordance with the provisions under the Transportation Modernization Act (Bill C-49), Canadian National Railway has committed $3.5 billion in capital spending to upgrade its locomotive fleet, rail cars and improve tracks. Likewise, Canadian Pacific promised to have 15 per cent more locomotives available to haul grain this autumn and plans to spend $500 million on new grain cars.

Sobkowich said he was encouraged to see investment commitments, but added he still had not heard anything to make him believe farmers would end up with a different result than last year.

“Maybe this will give them a better ability to meet those numbers, because last year they didn’t meet those numbers in many of the weeks,” he said.

CN Director of Grain Marketing David Przednowek said the company had made a number of improvements to help build resiliency in their rail network, including revamping the grain service plan to optimize scheduled days of loading.

“And some of the changes we have made to our commercial products that shippers commit to over the course of the year, are also going to ensure customers don’t bunch orders into specific regions and that can cause supply chain issues,” he said.

In response to Sobkowich’s concerns about grain capacity this year, Przednowek said there is a common misconception that needs correcting.

“That’s just for Hopper cars that CN supplies to customers. What CN has seen over time is the number of private cars moving on our networks increased over time and that represents capacity that is on top of that 5,500 per week and that 4,000 per week,” he said.

Przednowek said the addition of 190 locomotives, and 1,250 trained conductors will also help speed up delivery.

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell