With the combines set to roll across the prairies, many farmers are looking at a bumper crop this year, however, the grain transportation backlog after 2013's record crop is still fresh in many minds.
Mark Hemmes is the president Quorum Corporation, the grain monitoring firm hired by the Federal Government in reaction to those rail transportation challenges.
He says the railways have said they are ready to handle a bigger crop this season, but if we had a repeat of 2013, he doesn't expect them to move any more than what they did in their best period that year.
"It really is not possible for a railway to have that much capacity available at a moments notice but they have been given notice and there are plans in position so I don't think any of the problems that we are going to see in this crop year are ones that we saw in 2013-2014. If we do have problems they are going to be of a new nature."
Hemmes, says the railways have been notified that a larger crop is expected this year and they have said plans are in place to handle it as best they can.
Source : Discoverestevan