(The Associated Press distributed the following article on June 24.)
WICHITA, Kan. — More of the Kansas wheat crop is moving to market this year on the railroad because of a shortage of trucks and a slow harvest in Oklahoma that has kept haulers there.
Also spurring the shift back to rail is the arrival of the short-line Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad — and the improvement in service and dependability that came with it, elevator managers said. A single railcar can transport as much grain as four trucks.
The shortage of trucks is the result of a wave of trucking company bankruptcies in the past three years. Many of the remaining haulers are stalled south of the Kansas border, waiting on the Oklahoma harvest.
The return this year to more rail use by many elevators is good news for the Kansas Department of Transportation, which faces major increases in road repair costs when the wheat harvest moves by truck.
Rail service also allows faster turnaround at elevators with limited capacity during this bumper crop year.
Yields in Kingman County, for example, are ranging from 45 bushels an acre to more than 70 bushels an acre, said Aaron Murphy, manager of the Cunningham branch of the Cairo Co-op. He said his elevator would be in trouble this year without rail service.
“If we had to truck this, we’d be piling grain on the ground and praying for dry weather,” Murphy said. “As it is, we’re moving it out pretty steady.”