It is that time of year again. It’s late August and even in southwestern Ontario you can feel a bit of chill in the air especially when the sun goes down. It is the time when summer seems to be coming to an end even though we’ve got another month left. Usually in southwestern Ontario we see soybeans ripening at this time of year. This year because of the widespread replant earlier this spring there is none of that. However, there is much going on.  You can almost feel change in the air.

There has certainly been a lot going on in the news this past week to keep everyone busy. The biggest news that was affecting agriculture was the possible strike at Canada’s two major railroads. This turned into an actual lockout last night at midnight. Then late this afternoon our federal government forced the parties to binding arbitration forcing workers back to work. However, Friday it was still a bit unclear as the work stoppage continued for Canadian Pacific Kansas City.  At CN there is a renewed call for a strike.  It’s just one of those things. There’s lots of blame to go around but at the end of the day here we are.

For me farming here in southwestern Ontario doing all the usual things Ontario farmers do in late August, there wasn’t much angst regarding a Canadian railroad strike. Our harvest is still about 5 or 6 weeks away but in Western Canada it is ramping up almost everywhere and you could just imagine the anxiety that was going on through western Canadian farm country.  For now, it continues.

As it is, it wouldn’t be fair for me to leave it there. The threat of a strike had grain bids being pulled over the last several days.  It’s completely obvious why, buyers didn’t really want grain which they couldn’t move. At the same time, it also affected the futures market today with wheat prices tanking once again. Sure, some of that is the non-commercial interests doing what they do, but it was also the spectre of Canadian grain piling up and not being able to be moved.

Keep in mind that it’s easy to blame politics for this situation especially if you are in Western Canada. However, remember we don’t do politics here. Let’s just say it’s a very complicated situation.  You could argue that the government forcing the parties to binding arbitration about 12 hours after the workers were locked up is an indictment of government inaction.  Or you could argue it the other way.  From a farmers pespective, it almost seems like everybody else’s rights are being respected except there’s. Needless to say, that just might be idle speculation, as we wait for rail cars to move again.

I also don’t want to discount the problems that have been caused for western Canadian farmers by the spectre of a strike, then a lockout, an apparent settlement and then a redo.  The disruption is very trying for farmers.

You know, Canada is a very big country, and this makes it so very complicated. You’ve heard me say this before, but Canadian agriculture is really made-up of three distinct “countries” with their own unique geography, culture, agricultural production systems and language. This is Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec.  Generally speaking, when we think about moving grain in Ontario and Quebec, we never think about railcars.  However, in Western Canada it is the lifeblood of moving grain.  It’s one example how we are so different.  We are all Canadian, so even though there might have been a collective shrug in eastern Canada to the railroad situation, it needed to be dealt with quickly.

It goes to show you how important supply chain is. You might remember during the Covid pandemic how we had such problems with the supply of so many agricultural inputs.  Of course, we can look back on that now and say that it was created by the vagaries of the pandemic. The railroad situation was different because we were specifically dealing with infrastructure shutting down because of the labour dispute. Hopefully this episode won’t be lengthy as there could have been all kinds of supply shortfall everywhere in Canada and parts of the United States.

You might also argue the situation is constantly fluid.  There is always the age-old problem in Western Canada of moving grain in the first place. There are always issues with getting enough railcars when they are needed. There are also issues with running trains at -40° temperatures in the wintertime.  The big railroad issue might be over for the moment, but it’s really never over in Western Canada.

The focus now should be a long term solution. The western Canadian harvest will be difficult for some, better for others just like it is everywhere.  Frost last week and cold weather just made people a little bit more nervous.  Will we look back at Christmas and laugh? I don’t think so, this thing is hard.  Let’s hope for better rail transportation ahead.