More elevators, more capacity.
""Actually, we're licensing more bushels than we've had in the past," said North Dakota Public Service Commission chairman Brian Kalk. He says the number of state and federally-licensed elevators has gone up – from 389 last year to 396 this year. And he says the total capacity went from 368-point-one million bushels last year to a record 379-point-8 million bushels this year.
Commissioner Kevin Cramer says there’s another trend – more farmers are building on-farm storage.
"I've talked to many farmers over the past few weeks who stil have a lot of last year's product in their bins," said Cramer. "And they're looking at a pretty robust market right now. We're seeing a lot more savvy individual logistics and marketing efforts on the part of the farmers themselves."
Cramer says so far, North Dakotahas escaped the worst of the drought – and several farmers have told him they’ve received timely rains. He says because of the dry conditions elsewhere, farmers could see very good prices for their crops.
One of the newest elevators in North Dakota should be open soon. The PSC granted a warehouse license to Walsh Grain Terminal LLC for a one-point-eight million bushel facility in Park River.
"This is another shuttle facility," said Commissioner Bonny Fetch. "It should be ready to receive grain any day."
The facility is designed to serve 110-car "shuttle" trains.
