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BY ANDREA HILDERMAN
On the roadagain
GROWING A SUCCESSFUL CROP IS
the perennial goal of a farmer. However,
that’s just one small step in the bigger
puzzle of turning a profit. Freight costs—
namely trucking and rail—are a fact of life
for farmers, the same way farmers must
always contend with the weather. Farmers
deliver grain to a rural drop-off, then the
grain is moved by rail to a port, where it is
loaded onto a vessel. Where it goes from
there will require a passport.
Without getting the crop to market,
there is no money to pay the bills associ-
ated with preparing the land, growing the
crop, harvesting it and getting it safely
into storage.
Getting the crop “in the bin,” as farmers
say, is really just a starting point. Now
what? Indeed, take another step back.
Moving the crop from the combine in the
field to the grain bin involves a lot of dol-
lars. Farmers have to shoulder significant
risk and debt to move their crops. When
farmers talk about their finances on a
scale of hundreds of thousands of dollars,
it isn’t bragging, it’s just reality.
A combine harvester is emptied many
times as it chews its way through the ripe
crop in the fall. Ideally, this operation
doesn’t stop, day or night, for as long as
conditions are conducive to harvesting
grain that is both ripe and dry enough that
it won’t spoil in the bin.
The combine dumps its load into a grain
cart—a behemoth that can haul up to 20
tonnes or more of grain—pulled by a trac-
tor, which is then driven back to a central
storage area where the grain is transport-
ed into specialized storage bins using a
grain auger. More and more farmers are
using semi-trailers to haul grain from the
field to the yard, and farmers often have
more than one semi in their fleet.
Roger Leroux farms with his brother
Mark and their families nearly 20 kilo-
metres north of St. Paul, AB. Theirs is a
pretty typical Prairie grain farm. Their
business, Leroux Farms Ltd., operates on
about 4,500 acres of farmland. As part of
their mixed grain operation, they also run
a custom feedlot during the winter.
“Everything is a cost for us, for every
farmer,” said Leroux. “Storage in our
main yard is a cost. Hauling the grain
to our storage yard is a cost.” Leroux
and his brother estimate they might
harvest and store in the neighbourhood
of 6,000 tonnes of various grains every
year. “And of course, we have to separate
everything,” he added. “Our barley des-
tined for malting or feed, canola, wheat
and peas have to be kept segregated. And
even if we have different qualities of the
same grain, that has to be kept separate
as well.”
At harvest, the Leroux family hires help
to ensure there are enough hands to run
the combines, move and maintain equip-
ment, haul grain and complete the myriad
Growing a successful crop is only the beginning. Transporting that crop tomarket can be a long and expensive process.
Photos: Michael Interisano
The Food Issue
2016
Grains
West
44
HAULINGGRAIN IS JUST PARTOF THE JOB IF YOUWANT TOBE A FARMER
FARMING
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