The closure of two nearby grain elevators within half a year has added to the woes of Grande Prairie-area grain producers.
Last summer, Cargill closed its Albright facility about 40 kilometres west of Grande Prairie on Highway 43. Now, Viterra has closed its grain-handling facility in Hythe, just 20 kilometres down the road.
Farmers will have to haul much longer distances, either to the new Viterra site in Sexsmith (20 kilometres north of Grande Prairie), a Cargill facility in Rycroft (80 kilometres north of Grande Prairie), or Dawson Creek, B.C. Many area producers believe the west end of the County of Grande Prairie will be underserviced with the closure.
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It’s left producers in the area scratching their heads – and opening their pocketbooks.
Wayne Alde grows grains and oilseeds on 2,100 acres in the Beaverlodge area and was a prime supporter of the Cargill plant, as well as Viterra in Hythe.
After the opening of the $24-million Viterra facility in Sexsmith last summer, Alde said area producers knew the sister location in Hythe was on life support.
“But when Cargill jumped out in front of them in June announcing the Albright closure, it really shook us up,” he said.
“We’re hauling all the way to Sexsmith now. It’s doubling our time and distance, so it’s doubled our costs.”
The Albright facility had become outdated and wasn’t worth investing in, said Mike Witkowicz, Cargill’s regional farm service group leader.
But the move is driving up costs for both farmers and government, said Alde, who estimates it costs him about $25,000 a year to haul to Sexsmith.
“We had half a crop up here this year and it’s been a real struggle hauling such long distance in bitterly cold weather to get into the elevator.”
He says the closures may be crippling for many producers.
“Now, your choice is Viterra, or Viterra or then there’s Viterra,” said Alde. “We have no competition.”
Another concern is the amount of traffic the two elevator closures are putting on area highways, he said.
“I’ve heard that it takes 200 Super-Bs to replace every 100- unit train,” said Alde. “If the Albright facility sent out 400 to 500 cars, imagine how much more our infrastructure is getting pounded.”
Witkowicz would not say how many cars a year were loaded out of Cargill’s Albright facility, calling it proprietary information, but did say the plant could load 17 cars efficiently at one spot.
The plant is only about 30 years old, and Alde’s been hauling his grain there since it opened.
He believes the closure has more to do with poor management than volume.
“A pile of grain went through that facility and I don’t know how they were losing money,” said Alde. He says business should have been good, citing Cargill’s t rack expansion to run a five-car spot as well as the addition of new silos.
Witkowicz said the company has completed an environmental assessment on the Albright facility and will be addressing the two minor deficiencies before putting the grain asset for sale this spring.
“We do have interest, and will be delivering a spec sheet to potential buyers,” he said.
For a time, it looked like a farmer-run organization might take over the site. But interest waned after an info session staged last fall by the County of Grande Prairie, said county ag fieldman Sonja Raven. The meeting brought in Fort St. John’s Gordon Hill of the North Pine Farmers Institute to talk about that organization’s experience in setting up a community-run grain elevator in the B.C. city.
Hill’s presentation was “very illuminating and pretty sobering,” said Pat Jacobs, a councillor with the County of Grande Prairie.
If Alde’s any indication, a farmer-run initiative isn’t in the cards.
“I’m a producer and I don’t have time to chase after an elevator,” he said. “We’ve got enough on our plate as producers to keep up our end of the ship without jumping in a life raft and trying to plug holes in it.”
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“We’rehaulingallthewaytoSexsmithnow.It’sdoublingourtimeanddistance,soit’sdoubledourcosts.”
WAYNE ALDE
BEAVERLODGE GRAIN GROWER
