(August 15, 2011) Farmers have a statutory right to bypass the inland elevator and order a producer car directly from the railways.

Of course it is not quite that simple. The individual farmer needs to have a sale for his grain and also needs to reserve space at an export terminal at port for his producer car delivered grain.  Unfortunately the export terminals at port are now owned by the same companies that own the inland terminals. Naturally they are not enthused with “cutting out the middle man.”

 

In fact most producer cars carry CWB grains because the CWB has the legal authority under the single desk to get the farmers grain into port.

Producer Car loading has evolved over time:

 

 

It can range from an individual farmer with an auger to cooperative facilities owned by several farmers.

These can be anything from the functional:

To the recycled:

To the more elaborate:

 

To state of the art with computerized blending:

West Central Road and Rail Producer Car Facility

The bottom line is farmers make more money and usually save trucking costs by using a producer car. Without the CWB’s single desk selling authority producer cars would largely disappear.

Learn more about producer cars