Star of the West that mitigates the potential impacts of rail strikes

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Star of the West that mitigates the potential impacts of rail strikes

A grain producer says his company is preparing for a potential rail strike in the coming weeks.

Cody Harris tells Brownfield that while he hopes the unions can reach a resolution, the pressure on the grain movement is mounting.

“It seems like the lead times are a little longer than usual, we’ve been able to adapt to that recently, but the added pressure is definitely raising a bit of concern about moving products,” he says.

The Star of the West Milling Company has locations in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and New York and relies heavily on the railroad. Harris says they are making plans to adapt if the move stops.

“We’re trying to move a little bit of grain a little bit faster than usual right now, just to mitigate a little bit of that risk,” he says.

He says having local end users in Michigan helped alleviate storage and logistics challenges.

“We’ve got a lot of end users here in Michigan in terms of ethanol plants, all the way down to corn or we have bean processing plants, especially with the new one in Ithaca — the crushing facility in Zeeland, which is definitely taking a burden. of the warehouse,” he explains.

Harris says the pace of harvest has been better than usual this season, which has been positive in a time of uncertainty.