Western Canadian farmers loaded a record number of producer cars with CWB grain in 2008-09, continuing a decade-long trend in increased producer-car use.
About 2,800 producers loaded 12.447 cars to move their wheat and barley to port this crop year. The previous record of 12,124 cars was achieved in 1990-91. However, the abandonment of branch rail lines and the drastic consolidation of primary elevators across the Prairies reduced usage to about 3,000 cars by 1998-99. The number has been climbing back since then, spurred by producers’ desire for cost savings and a growing number of shortline railways.
“Farmers are looking for ways to reduce the expense of grain handling,” said CWB board chair Larry Hill, who farms near Swift Current. “Shipping by producer car means you don’t have to drive to an elevator or pay for its services. The CWB is committed to assisting producer-car users across the Prairies as they work to make their farm operations more efficient.”
Producer cars are railway hopper cars that farmers can order to load themselves at a rail siding or producer-loading facility located closer to home than the nearest grain terminal. Shipping grain by producer cars can save farmers $800 to $1,200 per car, depending on the producer’s location. The option of producer cars creates more grain-handling competition, which can result in benefits such as increased trucking incentives and lower grain-handling charges.
A large, high-quality crop and sizable CWB marketing program in 2008-09 provided another incentive to use producer cars. Much of the growth in producer-car use is due to collaboration between the CWB and producer-car networks, such as West Central Road and Rail, Mission Terminal, Prairie Grain Producers and Great Northern Grain.
Under the Canada Grain Act, farmers are entitled to order producer cars to ship their CWB and non-board grains. In recent years, very few cars have been used for non-board grains due to requirements for sales agreements and terminal authorization to be in place before the grain is moved to port.
For board grains, the CWB helps administer the cars by facilitating sales, gaining terminal authorization at port, working with the Canadian Grain Commission to approve applications, and securing car supply from the railways. A step-by-step guide for ordering and loading producer cars, including application forms, can be found online.
