More wheat travels in producer cars

“The trend in producer car loading is coming back again,” says Don McLean, who farms near Manitou, Man. McLean is president of Boundary Loading Group Inc., a new producer-car loading facility at Darlingford, and a director with Boundary Trails Railroad, which runs the 26-mile short line from Morden to Manitou.

Numbers from the Canadian Wheat Board confirm McLean’s comment. The board says about 2,800 producers loaded 12,447 cars to move their wheat and barley to port in the 2008-09 crop year. The previous record was 12,124 cars in 1990-91. These numbers account for almost all the producer cars filled. The CWB is a big fan of producer cars, so it goes a long way to facilitate the process. That said, McLean is in talks with Quaker to load oats in producer cars destined for U.S. processing plants. And in talking with Gerald Onerheim, who farms near Frontier, Sask., he tells me their local producer-car loading facility has handled peas, mustard and lentils.

The CWB says shipping grain by producer cars can save farmers $800 to $1,200 per car in elevation fees. In McLean’s experience selling to Mission Terminal in Thunder Bay, he also gets better grades (higher protein and lower dockage) for wheat delivered through producer cars than his local elevators offered for the same samples.

For details on how to load a car, including applications, paperwork and tips, go to this CWB website page. At the CN and CP websites, you'll also find the list of sidings available for producer cars drops. Between the two companies, there are 250 to  300 sites across the Prairies. The few dozen producer car loading facilities across the Prairies can, for a few hundred dollars per car, help with paperwork and provide temporary track-side bin space to speed up your loading process.

I'd like to hear about your experiences — good and bad — in loading producer cars. Did you have to load in a rain storm or blizzard? Were you late and got an unpleasant demurrage charge? Did it work smoothly and you look forward to delivering all your wheat by producer car? Please comment on this blog or email me. I'd like to share your experiences with other Grainews readers.