(The following story by Jim Stafford appeared on The Oklahoman website on June 10.)
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Stung by complaints of an Oklahoma grain elevator operator, officials with BNSF Railway and Farmrail System Inc. on Monday defended their delivery of railcars during this year’s wheat harvest.
The railroad operators, along with the Union Pacific and the Wichita, Tillman and Jackson line were singled out by Mike Cassidy of Cassidy Grain in Frederick last week for slow delivery of railcars to haul out grain from overfilled grain elevators.
On Monday, Kevin Kaufman, vice president for agricultural products with BNSF, said that his company has done a “bang-up job” delivering railcars to Oklahoma elevators this harvest season.
“The extraordinary thing is because they weren’t sure what their yields would be, most of the elevator operators under-ordered cars,” Kaufman said.
In fact, Kaufman said, the first delivery for Cassidy Grain was not scheduled until June 14.
“The interesting thing about him is he calls you up and (complains) to you but he has never once called us,” Kaufman said. “You have to ask yourself, is this a political thing on his part, or what is he trying to do? We have been bending over backward to get cars to these guys and cover them.”
Cassidy, president of Cassidy Grain, responded by alleging that he has “been on the phone with them constantly for 10 days.”
‘No one was prepared’
When cars clogged up the BNSF rail line at Snyder, the railroad was slow to pull them out and make room for more, he said. Cassidy Grain needed 500 cars to ensure room in its grain elevators for what apparently is a much larger harvest than anticipated.
“The bottom line, regardless of all these accusations, is that we needed the help and the support of the railroads and they let us down by not pulling loads out and allowing empty cars in,” Cassidy said.
“No one was prepared for this harvest, especially the railroads,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy was especially critical of the Union Pacific railroad and the Wichita Tillman and Jackson short line that brings cars up from Wichita Falls, Texas. Cassidy Grain received the first 60-car train since the harvest began on Monday.
The harvest was already 90 percent complete in the Frederick area when the cars arrived, he said.
“It’s a classic case of David and Goliath,” Cassidy said. “You’ve got the monopoly railroads that do as they want, and they won’t adjust to changing conditions. It’s the same every year.”
Calls placed to both the Union Pacific and the WTJ lines were not returned Monday afternoon.
‘Harvest came so early’
At Lone Wolf north of Frederick, Kenny Hahn, manager of the Planters Co-op Association, was also critical of the Union Pacific for its performance. But he did not blame the Farmrail System or BNSF for his rail woes.
“If I have a real complaint with the railroads it’s with the UP,” Hahn said. “I would say that if the UP performed I would not have a complaint one. But they didn’t, and I have had to rely solely on the Burlington Northern and asked for things that are beyond their scope because the harvest came so early.”
Both Hahn and George Betke, chief executive officer of the Farmrail System, blamed the situation on inadequate infrastructure built decades ago.
“The elevator capacity that we have in Western Oklahoma and the rail structure both date from way back in the last century,” Betke said.
“And neither one is able to handle a bumper crop that we are experiencing this year. The other thing is that has happened is that harvesting methods have increased so much from a productivity standpoint.”
Mike Cassidy did not attend a pre-harvest meeting conducted by Farmrail for all grain elevators throughout the short line’s rail system, which meant that he did not order railcars in a timely manner, Betke said.
“I think it’s rather disingenuous of him to suggest that BNSF has failed him or our company has failed him,” Betke said.
What’s next?
BNSF’s Kaufman said that his company has delivered late only 78 cars this season and then only by one day.
“Over the past five years we have been working really hard to improve our service metrics to improve our service each year,” Kaufman said.
Cassidy was unimpressed.
“Tell him to save that because he is going to need that for the legislative interim study that we are going to call for in Oklahoma,” Cassidy said.