18 CapitalPress.com
September 4, 2015
In reversal, abundant grain Program pairs
trains available for harvest veterans with
ag careers
By JAMES MACPHERSON
Associated Press
STERLING, N.D. — The
grain elevator that towers
over this small prairie town
has been humming with
workers loading crops onto
rail cars destined for domestic
and worldwide markets.
It’s a welcome sight in
Sterling, North Dakota,
and across the upper Great
Plains, where in the past
two years grain elevators
overflowed and mountains
of wheat, corn, soybeans
and other crops lay in piles,
awaiting rail cars that
seemed to never come.
Just in time for what
the U.S. Agriculture De-
partment expects to be
near-record corn and soy-
bean harvests, grain train
cars are in abundance. The
reversal is attributed to un-
precedented spending on
track upgrades, political
pressure from politicians in
agriculture-rich states and
a drastic decrease in trains
hauling crude and freight
to and from western North
Dakota’s
oil-producing
region.
“There had been some
uncertainties but it has
gradually gotten better,”
said Josh Mardikian, grain
manager at the South Cen-
tral Grain Cooperative el-
evator in Sterling. As he
spoke, a train was being
loaded with 24 million
pounds of spring wheat,
much of which would be
used for a national pizza
chain’s dough. Grain trains
had been running late by as
much as 45 days in the past
18 months, Mardikian said,
but in the past week, mile-
long, 110-car trains had
shown up some four days
earlier than expected.
Oil activity in North Da-
kota was partly to blame
for the widespread short-
age and backlog of rail cars
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
AP Photo/James MacPherson
In this Aug. 20 photo, elevator worker Brian Grahn inspects a rail car about to be loaded with spring
wheat in Sterling, N.D. With fall harvest fast approaching, farmers are expecting to get the trains they
need to move crops to market, a turnaround from the past two years when elevators across North
Dakota — and in some other farm states — were overflowing and mountains of grain were piled on the
ground awaiting rail cars.
from North Dakota and
Montana down to Kansas
and east into Illinois, Na-
tional Farmers Union Pres-
ident Roger Johnson said.
“It doesn’t take too much
more on the tracks to really
get things snarled up,” he
said.
The long delays added
to costs for grain elevators
and agricultural produc-
ers, but whether the costs
trickled down to consumers
depends on the food prod-
uct manufacturer, said Ed
Usset, a grain marketing
economist at the University
of Minnesota.
“It’s conceivable that
every bakery in the world
could have tried to pass
those costs along but often-
times companies just ride it
out until things get better,”
he said.
Frustrations with grain
shipping made it all the
way to Washington, where
politicians last year called
on the Surface Transporta-
tion Board to press the rail-
roads, which it oversees,
for plans to address the
backlog.
BNSF Railway Co. said
it has invested billions of
dollars in upgrades across
its rail network since
2013, including $1 billion
in North Dakota alone.
The railroad is now ship-
ping all freight “faster,
more predictable and more
consistent,” according to
John Miller, a vice presi-
dent who oversees the Fort
Worth, Texas-based compa-
ny’s grain-related business.
“We put the pressure on
the railroads and were will-
ing to be a pain to them but
we are also willing to give
them credit that they’ve
owned up to this problem
and appear to have fixed
it,” said U.S. Rep. Kev-
in Cramer, a Republican
from North Dakota who
was one of the politicians
who pressed for solutions.
“We’ll see.”
Lochiel Edwards, a
grain farmer who rep-
resents Montana’s Grain
Growers Association on
rail issues, said the “only
logical solution was to
build a bigger rail net-
work.”
Also contributing to
the turnaround is a slow-
down in drilling activity in
western North Dakota’s oil
patch due to depressed oil
prices. While the state’s oil
production has remained
stable at about 1.2 million
barrels a month, the per-
centage of crude shipped
by rail has dropped below
50 percent due to increased
refining capacity and addi-
tional pipelines.
“I hope we don’t have
to put up with the crap we
had to in the past,” Minne-
sota Farmers Union Pres-
ident Doug Peterson said,
especially in a year when
his state is seeing bumper
crops.
Johnson, the national
farmers’ union leader, re-
mains optimistic.
“Almost no one is
talking about it,” he said.
“That’s the best indicator
things have eased up.”
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Ad Det
seed dealer already.
“We don’t want people
to think of this as a dona-
tion, but rather an invest-
ment in our returning vet-
erans and their own food
security,” she said.
Carter aims to put 10
veterans to work next
year.
Steven Lowe and Beau
Hansen filled out appli-
cations for the program
during a recent career fair
for veterans. Both are now
in the Army Reserve and
considering their career op-
tions.
“I was raised in a farm-
ing family in south-central
Idaho,” Lowe said. “After
growing up and loving it,
I came here and I find out
they’re actually assisting
people to get their own
farm, essentially. I was
like, that’s what I want
right there.”
Hansen’s brother-in-law
farms, he said.
“Our generation now-
adays doesn’t understand
the importance of farm-
ing,” Hansen said. “It’s
very therapeutic. It’s a lot
of hard work, but it’s good
work. You’re on the land
you live on.”
Lowe hopes to spread
the word about Vets on the
Farm.
“I know there’s a lot of
people I grew up with or
I’ve talked to in the ser-
vice that would love to
hear what they have to say
about getting into the busi-
ness of agriculture,” he
said.
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ere Seed
John De
SPOKANE — A new
program is helping area
veterans put down new
roots in agriculture.
The Spokane Conserva-
tion District launched the
Vets on the Farm program
in the spring. It’s designed
to educate veterans about
agricultural career oppor-
tunities, and pair them with
farmers who serve as men-
tors.
“There’s such a need on
both the farming side and
the veteran side,” said con-
servation district director
Vicki Carter.
The Farmer Veteran Co-
alition in Sacramento ini-
tiated the concept in 2006.
A documentary, “Ground
Operations: Battlefields to
Farmfields,” talks about
gaps in the farming popula-
tion as farmers retire, Car-
ter said.
“Veterans, particularly
our post-9/11 veterans, are
the perfect fit,” she said.
“They are looking for a new
mission, and food security
is another way for them to
carry out what they’ve al-
ready dedicated their life
to, which was national se-
curity.”
More than a dozen veter-
ans have applied. All have
different goals, Carter said,
ranging from small-scale
farming to large-scale op-
erations.
Others are pursuing
a related ag business,
such as a soil restoration
business.
The conservation dis-
trict is looking for compa-
nies to provide paid intern-
ships. Carter has worked
with several farmers, a
local vineyard and a local
Online
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