South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska Farmers Union State President’s gathered in Sioux Falls Tuesday with staff of the Surface Transportation Board and some state elected officials to talk about rail problems. Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen says they outlined how rail car shortages and service are detrimentally affecting farmers and ranchers in the Northern Plains.
Hansen says the S-T-B needs more authority to be able to act when rail bottlenecks occur and it becomes difficult if not impossible for ag inputs to come in and out puts to go out.
He says it’s clear the rail car and shipping problems are not caused by weather and commodity production but by management issues in the rail industry itself.
Hansen says there was a lot of good information shared at Tuesdays meeting in Sioux Falls. He’s hoping that will be useful going forward as officials try to come up with long term solutions.