(The Minot Daily News published the following story by Marvin Baker on its website on September 1.)
MINOT, N.D. — Perfect weather conditions for harvest, the best crop in recent memory and a lingering rail-car shortage have filled elevators to capacity forcing managers in northwestern North Dakota to pile spring wheat, durum and barley on the ground.
Extension agents have reported fantastic yields and test weights in all the cereal grains and elevators are having trouble keeping up with the rapid influx as producers hustle to finish their combining.
Some people are calling this year’s harvest “a two-for-one crop,” since yields have often been double their normal rate.
John Gaebe, station manager at the Dakota Quality Grain Co-op in Ross, said Sunday he had 185,000 bushels of durum and 88,000 bushels of spring wheat on the ground in his Mountrail County community.
In addition, he said Dakota Quality Grain stations in Parshall had 250,000 bushels of wheat and durum outside the elevator and New Town had 200,000 bushels of barley unprotected as of 2 p.m., Sunday.
According to Gaebe, several unit trains are on order and are about two weeks behind schedule. Parshall and New Town are served by Canadian Pacific Railway and Ross is served by Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Gaebe anticipates another full week of harvest before the accumulation will stop and he expects the total to go well beyond the 700,000 bushels now piled throughout the Dakota Quality Grain system. “We’re still dumping fairly steady,” he said.
Dave Allan of Harlow Co-op Elevator & Seed Co. in Maddock, reported Sunday that 185,000 bushels of spring wheat were on the ground in Maddock with another 60,000 bushels piled in Harlow. Both communities are in Benson County.
“When there’s a big crop like this, it winds up on the ground,” Allan said. “We had an area ready for barley and soybeans, but didn’t have to use it.”
Allan said his elevator is served by the Red River Valley & Western, a short-line railroad that usually routes grain to a terminal in Devils Lake that is, in turn, served by BNSF. Requests for cars are backlogged up to two months, he said.
“Cars are short all over the country,” Allan said. “It’s short all the way around.”
But the dumping has gone well, according to Allan. He said elevator employees are using 10-inch and 12-inch augers so trucks can unload quickly and get back to the fields. He admitted it has been hot standing out in the open, but on the other hand, it’s good harvest weather.
Allan said he tested some new-crop wheat that weighed 65.7 pounds per bushel. The standard weight for a bushel of wheat is 60 pounds. He said he has never seen anything like it.
Allan hopes to have all quarter-million bushels cleaned up by the end of October.
“This is my 34th harvest here and I’ve seen more farmers smile this year than in the last 10 years and that makes my job easier,” he said. “In 1961 we had a drought and in ’62 it was the best crop we’d had until now. It’s good all the way around.”
Closer to the international boundary, there’s about 300,000 bushels of grounded spring wheat near the Bottineau Farmers Elevator Co., with another 200,000 bushels stockpiled at stations in Souris and Westhope. Bottineau, Westhope and Souris are all served by BNSF.
Bottineau County Extension reported Friday that 1 million bushels of grain were on the ground across the county.
Other elevators in the northwest Sunday reported varying amounts of spring wheat augered on the ground including 170,000 bushels at ADM-Benson Quinn in Underwood, 130,000 bushels at SunPrairie Grain in Mohall, 70,000 bushels at SunPrairie in Bowbells and 60,000 bushels at SunPrairie in Ryder. In addition, there’s 140,000 bushels of barley outside at the Rolla Cooperative Grain Co.
“Almost every elevator you go by, there’s grain on the ground and farmers are piling it on the ground,” said Ward County Extension Agent Mike Rose. “So far, producers are happy with yields and quality and these are the best harvest conditions we’ve had in 10 years.”