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Wheat farmers looking for trains, markets to ship bumper crop
DENVER (AP)--A shortage of rail cars and commercial carriers is keeping much of a bumper crop of wheat in Colorado, despite an emergency order Gov. Bill Ritter signed to help farmers move crops out of state. After six years of drought, many carriers went out of business because the state's 9,000 farmers didn't have enough crop to haul. This summer farmers harvested 94 million bushels--up 136 percent over last year--believed to be the biggest wheat crop in nearly 10 years. In August, Ritter suspended motor-carrier laws until Oct. 13 so farmers could use trucks with farm license plates to move their grain to market. But with so much wheat still waiting to be shipped late Oct. 5, Ritter extended his order through the end of the year. Normally farmers are only allowed to use farm-plated trucks to haul their own crops, but the governor's order allows those trucks to be hired out to haul loads for other growers. "We've still got most of our wheat," said Kelly Spitzer, a grain merchandiser for Tempel Grain in Wiley. At a company storage area in Two Buttes, 350,000 bushels of harvested wheat is still on the ground. Meanwhile, Colorado farmers are harvesting dryland corn and millet, with storage space for crops at a premium. Grainland Coop, which has storage for 28 million bushels of product, told The Denver Post it will have a "mountain" of corn on the ground in coming weeks. John Stulp, agriculture commissioner, said the state Department of Agriculture is working with wheat producers to get their product to market. "Colorado typically exports 80 percent of our wheat, so this issue could have an impact on the Colorado agriculture economy," he said. Tim Larsen, senior international marketing specialist for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, told the Post that Colorado needed more than 5,000 more rail cars this year than last to move the wheat to market. Scott Kirkwood, a grain merchandiser at Grainland Coop in Haxtun, said so many trains are exporting grain that it's becoming like Interstate 25 during rush hour. Kevin Kaufman, group vice president, agricultural products, for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, said rule changes recently implemented would make loading and unloading crops more efficient so trains can return to states for more grain. Spitzer said finding a market for the wheat is a bigger problem even than transportation. "All of our markets are full of wheat, and they don't want any more," Spitzer said. "I don't think, in our history, that we've seen a situation like this," said Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers and the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee. Date: 10/17/07
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