. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Sept. 7,1974—55 GRAINS S TRAINS The recent surge in farm exports put such a strain on railroad ca pacity that many shippers are wondering if the trains can meet their future needs. ERS takes a look at rural shipping problems. Jack Smith in Plain’s County, Nebraska, was more than a little upset. His trrain harvest was in, but it had no place to go. The country elevator down the road couldn’t han dle any more grain until boxcars were dispatched to unload the jammed facility. Joe White, the elevator manager, didn’t feel much better. With record high grain prices and high interest rates on unmoved inventories, each day’s delay in shipping cost him money—and restricted the cash flow to area farmers. Yet his unfilled or ders for more boxcars had been back logged for weeks. Meanwhile, down the tracks in Gulfeporte, Louisiana, rail cars were arriving with grain faster than port elevators could unload their burgeon ing stocks onto grain ships bound for the Black Sea. Freight cars were stacking up in holding patterns reminiscent of a busy airport suddenly overwhelmed by a groundswell of thick fog. And ROANOKE YEARLING STEER SALE Thursday, Sept. 12, 1974 at 7:00 P.M. 1500 HEAD 500 lbs. & Up State Sponsored and State Graded For information contact: Roanoke-Hollins Stock Yards Box 7005, on US Route 11 north of Roanoke Hollins, Virginia 24019 Joe Graham, Manager, Phone; (703)992-1112 DAIRY CATTLE SALE Sale to be held at the ABERDEEN SALES CO. INC., Livestock Auction Market located on Md. Rt. 22 6 mi. West of Aberdeen, Md. and 6 mi. East of Bel Air, Md. in Churchville, Harford Co., Md. on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1974 8:00 P.M. 50 HEAD OF TOP HOLSTEIN CATTLE Mr. John Bell of Catlett, Va. will have 2 loads of top fresh and springing Holstein cows and heifer-s. All of these heifers are by artificial breeding and out of the top herds in Virginia. Mr. Austin Riley of Fallston, Md. will have 1 load of fresh and close springing Holstein heifers to sell In addition, we have several fine consignments from local farmers. All cattle T.B. Accredited and Certified Bangs Free; tested within 30 days of sale for out of state shipment. ABERDEEN SALES CO. INC. Livestock Auction Mkt. Kent R. Ferrell, Jr. Auctioneer Complete Sale Management CONSIGNMENTS WELCOME TRUCKING AVAILABLE PRIVATE SALES DAILY Phone: 301-734-6050 Night: 734-7105 734-7978 until the cars were relieved of their cargoes, they could not make the return trip north to pick up more grain. Rural doubts. An extreme situation? Maybe, but scenarios like this one were all too familiar to grain pro ducers and shippers trying to meet sales commitments during the recent boom in agricultural exports. Moving goods in rural areas has always had its problems, but a pre liminary ERS study report on rural transportation suggests that shipping snags may have reached the crisis stage. Rural users are seriously question ing the ability of the grain market ing and transportation system to meet their needs. They see inade quate and costly transportation as a possible constraint on future in creases in production and sales. While ultimate solutions to rural shipping hangups are still being de bated among transportation planners, for now the practical answers seem to lie in increasing the operating effi ciency of the existing network. And railroads are the backbone of the grain transportation system. Troubled railroads. The railroads, however, are a financially beleaguer ed industry. Even though traffic vol ume set records last year and freight ~T?]_ /j gp-g THE WESTERN KENTUCKY TOWN OF FULTON WENT "BANANAS" AGAIN THIS YEAR WITH THE I2TH ANN UAL INTERNATIONAL BANANA FESTIVAL —PAR- ADES, PRINCESS PAGEANT, SQUARE DANCES, AND ONE TON BANANA PUDDING. TOWN EARNED BANANA CAPITAL TITLE YEARS AGO. BANANAS FOR NORTHERN MARKETS WERE PACKED IN ICE AT NEW ORLEANS FOR RAIL SHIPMENT —HAD TO BE RE ICED AT FULTON TO COM PLETE JOURNEY. cw C° EVERY WEDNESDAY IS ra* dairy JPu DAY AT NEW HOLLAND SALES STABLES, INC. New Holland, Pa. If you need 1 cow or a truck load, we have from 100 to 200 cows to sell every week at your price. Mostly fresh and close springing Holstems. Cows from local farmers and our regular shippers including Marvin Eshleman, Glenn Fite, Gordon Fritz, Blame Hoffer, Dale Hostetter, Bill Lang, H D Matz, angi Jerry Miller W SALE STARTS 12:30 SHARP 3 c° SPECIAL DISPERSAL SALE MONDAY, SEPT. 9, 7:30 P.M. A complete Herd Dispersal of 89 Good Cows Certified herd with some Purebred and a lot of Fall cows Good herd replacement cows GREEN DRAGON t|V LIVESTOCK SALES W RD3, Ephrata.Pa. Phone: 717-733-2334 Walter Risser, Manager rates were up, many lines have con tinued to fall into serious disrepair and financial insolvency. Several have declared bankruptcy. Reorganization of faltering rail lines has been enacted as a remedy for deteriorating profits—and serv ice—but many rural communities are concerned about the potential eco nomic effects of rail abandonments, which would undoubtedly be part of any reorganization plan. Many unprofitable branch lines have been abandoned by the railroads in past years, and frequently these lightly-traveled lines were located in rural areas. Looking at agriculture in aggre gate, ERS economists feel that so far, abandonments have not seriously re duced important rail segments serv ing agricultural users. Adverse effects. Some local commu nities may have been adversely af fected if they had no ready recourse to other modes of transportation. But in many cases rural businesses had already turned to other modes while the rail lines were still operating. A major difficulty for many coun try elevators and shippers is a short age of freight cars when rural ship- *• ments step up. Car shortages became critical in some areas last year when export movements gained momentum. While the car supply problem is usually thought of as an inadequate fleet, some economists believe that at least for the grains, it could be as readily alleviated by improving car utilization as by expanding the num ber of cars. Steps have been taken in this di rection, and the railroads say the car supply outlook for this year’s grain harvest is the brightest in almost 2 years. ERS economists expect only normal shortages through the wheat harvest. Car supplies up. According to the Association of American Railroads, car shortages to agricultural ship pers, reflected in backlogs of unfilled orders, have dropped sharply since last February. Also, additional cov ered hopper cars are now joining the grain car fleet at a rate of more than 1,500 a month. The railroads say this rate is likely to increase during the last part of the year when grain ship ments are heaviest. Since mid-1972, the covered hopper fleet has jumped from 181,500 to 209,- 000 cars. With a capacity of up to 100 tons, these large cars now move nearly 70 percent of all rail-hauled grains. Not only do they carry an average of 3,000 bushels compared with 2,000 for the general purpose boxcar once used in most grain shipments, but they can also be loaded and unloaded much faster. Covered hoppers are representative of the trend toward larger average capacities for all freight cars—which has helped to offset their declinipg numbers in recent years. Load restrictions. However, there’s a hitch to switching over completely to the jumbo cars. In some areas, ship pers and country elevators still re quire the smaller boxcar because they are located on branch lines that can’t support large hoppers. And in times of peak demand, there often haven’t been enough box cars to meet the needs of all the lines with load restrictions. From 1960 to 1972, the number of boxcars declined by nearly half—about 309,000 cars — by far the greatest decrease for any type of car. However, the railroads note that backlogged shipper orders for gen eral purpose boxcars have also been dramatically reduced this spring, and their supply situation has been fur ther improved by the increasing use of larger cars wherever possible. Future boxcar supplies would also benefit from a proposal to set up a free-running nationwide pool of box- WANTED Home For 51 HEAD HOLSTEIN FEEDERS average 740 lbs. each Well grown - carrying good flesh - casterated - dehorned - implanted - wormed, ready to go Make an offer Call 717-448-2971 between 6 & 9 P.M. J. MONAHAN, Pleasant Mount, Wayne Co., Pa. PUBLIC AUCTION For the Heirs of Jennie N. Gustafson, 333 acre farm, located on Quaker Neck Road, Route 289, just past the Chester River Yacht & Country Club, 2 miles South of Chestertown, Md SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1974 At 1:00 P.M REAL ESTATE; 333 ACRE DAIRY FARM 333 Acres with about 275 tillable Approx 6500 road frontage Improved by frame house 8 rooms & bath central H / W heat 28 stall dairy barn concrete paved area and large loafing shed 2 12x40 silos w/roofs chicken house Metal gram storage and corn cribs Ideal for gram farming dairy farming and hunting A (me farm with future potential TERMS 10 ' deposit settlement within 60 days possession by Jan 1,1975 Sale subject to confirmation by Heirs mrormation and plot plan available l r om HARRY RUDNICK & SONS, INC Auctioneers Galena, Md Phone|3ol] 648 5100 (Continued on Page 56]
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