CPKC Update

May 07, 2024

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference announced the results of its strike vote this week, with 98 percent of members voting in favor of a strike mandate.

Negotiations have been taking place this week with CPKC for its Train and Engine, and Rail Traffic Controllers

In a statement on the CPKC website they emphasize that they don't want to see a work stoppage and remain focused on reaching a balanced and responsible agreement through the collective bargaining process.

While discussions continue at the bargaining table, grain movement has been strong for this time of the year.

Elizabeth Hucker, CPKC's Assistant Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Bulk, says normally during the shoulder season they'd start to see a decline for demand in rail services for grain as farmers head to the field.

"Over the last month, we've seen strong grain shipments for this time of year. Actually, in the week that began on April 21st, we moved approximately 525,000 metric tonnes to markets like Vancouver, Thunder Bay, the U.S. and other Eastern Canadian destinations."

She says they've also seen some strong fertilizer shipments into Western Canada to support the seeding efforts.

To hear Glenda-Lee's conversation with CPKC's Assistant Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Bulk Elizabeth Hucker click on the link below.

Source : Pembinavalley online

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators