(The following article by Chuck Lentz was posted on the Grand Island Independent website on October 22.)
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — Some but not all Nebraska railroad lines are having problems with handling the record corn crop now being harvested.
“We’re already behind on getting hopper cars,” said Don Comer, grain merchandiser at the Aurora Cooperative, headquartered in Aurora.
“Union Pacific is behind 10 days very likely,” he said.
Problems in handling a projected record 11.6 billion-bushel corn crop in the United States are being complicated by the unusually low corn prices resulting from the size of the crop.
“U.P. was short five grain trains in the first half of October for the area,” Comer said.
“Our fleet of 23,000 covered hoppers are all in service for grain,” U.P. spokesman Mark Davis said when asked for comment.
Spokesmen for other railroads in Central Nebraska seemed unconcerned about problems with transporting corn this year.
“We anticipate having a heavier-than-usual load this year because of the size of the crop, but we have the resources to handle it,” said Steve Forsberg, spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
“We’ve invested in additional cars and locomotives,” Forsberg added. “We’ve been working on this since the third and fourth quarters last year.”
At the short-line Nebraska Central Railroad, Assistant General Manager Gary Hughes predicted that corn shipping for Nebraska Central “will be about the same” as in recent years.
“Since the price is so low, they (farmers) aren’t going to ship — farmers are going to save a lot of the crop,” Hughes said.
“They’ll spread shipping out through the year because of the price,” he explained.
No one disagreed with that prediction.
“Two million bushels were planned” at Aurora Cooperative facilities, Comer said. “Almost 1 million bushels are in already, and the harvest is only 45 percent done.
“Farmers are going to fill up everything they have,” he said. “Then elevators are going to fill up everything they have. Then they’re going to put it on the ground.”