2012 Fall Transportation Symposium
| |
TEGMA is already prepping for its annual Fall Transportation Symposium! So save the date:
September 13-14, 2012
This year, the Symposium will once again be held in conjunction with the National Grain Car Council.
 Join us in September at the beautiful
Four Seasons
At Los Colinas
Dallas, TX
Registration information will be released soon!
|
|
TEGMA Leadership
| |
Officers
Chairman
Todd McQueen
The Scoular Company
First Vice Chairman
Mark Huston
Louis Dreyfus Commodities
Second Vice Chairman
Brian Mehrmann
Gavilon Grain
Board of Directors
Greg Edelblute
Cereal Food Processors
Roger Fray
West Central Cooperative
Pete Goetzmann
ADM Grain Company
Barbara Haertling
BNSF Railway
Paul Hammes
Union Pacific
J.L. (Joey) Meibergen III
W.B. Johnston Grain Co.
Tom Meyer
Kansas Grain Inspection Service
Ryan Pellett
JD Heiskell
Staff
President
Bob Petersen
Director of Member Services
Erica Venancio
Director of Communications
Abigail Hiles
Contact Info
TEGMA Office
P.O. Box 26426
Kansas City, MO 64196
Tel: (816) 569-4020
Fax: (816) 221-8189
|
|
|
TEGMA 2012 Annual Meeting: Success!
| | An excellent turn-out of members heard an outstanding group of speakers at the TEGMA Annual meeting, held January 26-27, 2012, in Scottsdale, AZ. TEGMA Chairman Bob Knief, Bartlett Grain, welcomed the group of over 100 members and guests.
In his welcome, Knief noted that it had been a year of exploration for the organization. Throughout the past year, TEGMA has been o n a mission to further explore and capitalize on its value proposition to its members, re-establishing the issues committee to tackle such issues as security, railcar seals, and communications. TEGMA continues to strive to be a forum for its members and hopes to further this mission in the coming year.
Knief also led the business portion of the general session, ratifying the actions of the board for the past year, and introducing TEGMA President Bob Petersen to give the financial report and membership report to the membership. Nominating Committee Chair Eric Wilkey presented the committee's report and asked for a motion to approve new board member Ryan Pellett, as well as nominate and approve new officers for 2012-2013:
Chairman Todd McQueen, The Scoular Company
1st Vice Chair Mark Huston, Louis Dreyfus Commodities
2nd Vice Chair Brian Mehrmann, Gavilon Grain
Following the general session, meeting attendees enjoyed a wonderful reception and banquet at the Camelback Inn, and remarks from celebrity speaker, former Green Bay Packer Lynn Dickey.
TEGMA thanks all its members for their attendance at the 2012 Annual meeting, and hopes to see an even stronger showing at the 2013 Annual Meeting next year, slated to be held January 24-25, 2013 at the Montelucia in sunny Scottsdale, AZ.
 | TEGMA 2011-12 Board of Directors
|
|
Meeting Speakers Cover Pertinent Issues
| | Kyle Hancock, Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Industrial & Agricultural Products for CSX, Inc, opened the general session with his presentation "CSX: Focused on Serving the Agriculture Business in North America." Hancock gave an overview of their current infrastructure, fleet, and plans for expansion for CSX. Hancock stated that it is estimated that rail traffic will grow 61% in the next 30 years. He then gave TEGMA a look into CSX Transportation, opening in 1830, and the future of their business. Hancock then focused on CSX Agricultural interests. CSX originates from 300 grain elevators, terminates grain over 100 feed mills, has access to 34 grain processing facilities, 25 eastern flour mills, and 7 grain handling ocean export terminals. Hancock closed out his presentation by emphasizing that CSX is investing for growth in the agricultural market and how size, speed and efficiency are important to their Ag business to provide a platform for growth.
Stan Barnes, Arizona native and founder & president of Copper State Consulting group, continued the general session with his own view of the current political outlook for 2012. A former Arizona state representative, Barnes gave meeting attendees a chance to ask him questions about the 2012 elections and his opinion on the ongoing primary process. Barnes offered candid answers regarding Obama's tense exchange photo op with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and his own personal hope to see Condeleeza Rice as a possible Vice Presidential candidate. Barnes remarks offered a break from industry topics and brought an outside perspective to the Thursday afternoon session.
Glenn Hickman, President & CEO of Hickman's Family Farms, presented TEGMA's membership with his own unique view of the egg production industry. Opening his talk with a video of Hickman's very own stint on the television show, "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe." The video detailed the egg selection and production process, and showed the extreme lengths Hickman's goes through to maintain cleanliness and adhere to the strict anti-animal cruelty standards now in place. Hickman also After his presentation, when questioned about the recent lobbying and agreement with the egg lobby and HSUS to come to a joint agreement regarding caging, Hickman stayed with the position of the industry. If they are to operate and continue to produce, certain concessions had to be made, and he stands behind the decision of the UEP.
Brant Randles, President of Louis Dreyfus Canada, closed out the first day of speakers with his rousing talk of Canadian grain politics called "Canadian Impressions - Maple Leafs, Poutine, and the Open Market." With the CWB losing their monopoly effective August 1, 2012, farmer sales in Canada to the CWB will be strictly voluntary. The CWB will no longer have grain handling assets. Presently, the CWB is negotiating handling agreements with trade and will offer suite of pricing options to farmers including pooling. Randles also explained the common misconceptions held with the CWB and the general impression Canadians have concerning its demise. '
John Gillcrist, President, Bartlett Processing Companies, opened up our Friday morning session filling in meeting attendees on the major trends influencing US cattle feeding. Gillcrist first gave an overview of the companies under the Bartlett Processing Companies umbrella. Gillcrist then cited four major trends affecting current cattle feeding: supply and demand, state of the industry, grain/feed ingredients, and economic/regulatory factors. US feedlots can now produce more beef with less cattle, increasing efficiency in the industry. However, US cattle production is on the decline for the 5th consecutive year, and even projecting a net $60/head loss.
Larry Clarke, President & CEO of EGT LLC, detailed the company's presence on the Columbia River, as they build and operate a state-of-the-art export grain terminal at the Port of Longview in Washington. Clarke explained the thought behind building a new terminal was that the PNW has significant ocean freight advantage for destinations in Far east and the western coast of South America. Currently, wheat, corn, and soybeans almost evenly split the PNW export volume, in shipping to these destinations. EGT's choice of building on the Columbia had many advantages. Together with the Puget Sound it is the second largest export corridor for grains in North America. It is now also deep enough to accomodate Panamax vessels efficiently. Clarke also detailed the railroads currently servicing the PNW and how they have adopted aggressive stratetgies to increase the volume of grain they can handle.
EGT is a joint effort by Bunge, Itochu, and STX PanOcean. It is their hope that at the end of construction, the Longview facility will have the best-in-class truck cycle times, hold over 800,000 bushel storage capacity, and be able to load 110 car trains in under 10 hours.
|
Car Seals Task Force Gives Recommendation
| | TEGMA's Rail Car Seals Task Force met for the final time after the Annual Meeting to finalize its recommendations to the TEGMA Board of Directors and to clarify TEGMA's position on the main issues.
With active participation from both the UP and the BNSF, the Task Force has identified several action items:
1. The UP plans to issue a marketing advisory that will include the items discussed and provide detailed contact information for shippers encountering this problem. 2. The BNSF will also transmit similar information to all interested parties. 3. A copy of these transmissions will be sent to TEGMA for dissemination to all members and the KCSM to seek their involvement in this committee. All parties expressed their appreciation for the input and actions taken by the taskforce members to determine the causes, challenges, and workable solutions to the cable seal issue. If you have any comments or concerns regarding the task force, or the current issues in discussion, please contact Abigail Hiles, [email protected].
|
U.S. Carload Freight Down, Intermodal Up
| |
U.S. freight carload traffic for the week ending April 14, 2012 continued to fall short of 2011 levels, down 6.4% measured against the comparable week last year, the Association of American Railroads reported Thursday.
U.S. intermodal volume continued its own trend of modest gains, up 1.1% for the week compared with the same week a year ago.
AAR said 12 of the 20 carload commodity groups it measures posted increases compared with the same week in 2011, including petroleum products, up 39%, metallic ores, up 16.7%, and motor vehicles and equipment, up 15.3%. Groups with signficiant declines included farm products excluding grain, down 28.1%, coal, down 18.2%, and grain, down 16.3%.
Canadian freight carload volume continued its own, more positive trend, up 5.2% for the week ending April 14 compared with the same week last year. Canadian intermodal also rose, up 13.8% compared with a year ago. Mexican freight carload volume declined 14.9% for the week, but Mexican intermodal advanced 25.2% compared to a year ago.
Combined North American freight carload volume for the first 15 weeks of 2012 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads was down 1.8% measured against the comparable period in 2011. Combined intermodal volume was up 3.6% for the same period.
|
GIPSA Approves New Moisture Meters
| | On April 11, 2012, GIPSA announced approval two Unified Grain Moisture Algorithm (UGMA) Compatible moisture meters for use within the Official Inspection System. The Perten AM 5200-A and the Dickey-john GAC 2500UGMA moisture meters will eventually replace the GAC 2100, the current moisture meter approved  for use within the Official Inspection System. GIPSA has purchased 30 Perten AM-5200-A's and 75 Dicky-john GAC 2500UGMA for its own use and expects to receive these instruments by June 15, 2012. Implementation is expected t o begin with fall-harvested crops in September, 2012, and be completed with spring-harvested crops in May, 2013.
The planned implementation schedule and related documents will be soon available on GIPSA's website at www.gipsa.usda.gov
|
Rail's Future in New Orleans
| | In New Orleans, home of the nation's fourth-largest rail gateway, a "mini-CREATE" aims to meet many of the same goals of the CREATE gateway in Chicago. The New Orleans Rail Gateway program is designed to foster more efficient operations among nine railroads and expand capacity for future freight-volume growth throughout a Big Easy area that includes a 29-mile main corridor, four passenger-rail routes, more than 20 grade crossings, 13 rail yards (including six intermodal terminals) and 10 interlockings.
The city's 35-mile rail network serves as a vital link in the east/west distribution of freight traffic, provides access to Mexican and Canadian markets, and connects with two ports. Each year, freight railroads operating in the Big Easy average about 1.7 million cars and each day, all the roads average 56 train movements, including 23 manifest, 15 yard/local, 10 intermodal and six Amtrak trains.
The program is being developed via a public-private partnership comprising the Louisiana Department of Transportation Development (DOTD), New Orleans Regional Planning Commission, Association of American Railroads, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and six Class Is: BNSF Railway Co., CN, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. Amtrak, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad Co. (NOPB) and Port of New Orleans also are involved in the program.
To read the rest of the article, CLICK HERE.
Source: Progressive Railroading
|
Bartlett Grain Plans New Grain Handling Facility
| | | Bartlett Grain Company is pleased to announce plans to build a new grain handling facility in South Jacksonville, IL.
 The site is located on the Kansas City Southern Railroad and will be easily accessible from both Interstate 72 and HWY 267. The new elevator will be state of the art in all ways: safety, speed,efficiency and service. The facility will have over 2 million bushels of storage and a loop track that accommodates 100-car trains.
Bartlett expects it to provide 15-20 full time positions. With the support of South Jacksonville and IDOT, truck access is planned directly off HWY 267.
Construction is expected to begin this summer.
|
|
|
|
|
