PAOLI, COLO. — The good news: After a winter of multiple blizzards created hardships for residents and killed thousands of livestock in Eastern Colorado, the region is experiencing a record wheat harvest with high market value.
The bad news: There's no way to get it all to market.
"It's the right kind of problem to have," said state Agriculture Commissioner John R. Stulp, a farmer himself with excess wheat sitting in bins on his property. "But it would be insult on top of injury to have a good crop and lose part of it."
Grain-elevator operators have overflow wheat piling up on the ground -- as much as 10 million bushels statewide -- which is vulnerable to rain and windstorms. "It makes you nervous," said Steve Bahnsen, general Paoli Farmers Co-op manager, who estimates he has $1.9 million worth of wheat -- 300,000 bushels -- piled in front of his elevator.
The problem, officials said, is that Colorado has suffered through a lingering drought that depressed wheat yields for the last decade. Grain-hauling outfits went bankrupt and rail lines didn't schedule as many cars to run to the high plains.
This summer's bounty follows -- and in large part is due to -- the brutal winter, which left behind much-needed moisture. Now there isn't enough transportation to take the wheat bonanza to the Gulf or Pacific coasts, where 80% of it is usually shipped for export.
Gov. Bill Ritter declared a statewide emergency late last month to allow vehicles with farm license plates to haul wheat to rail yards.
The hope was that farmers could be deputized as wheat truckers and move some of the grain off the ground before late-summer storms.
But elevator operators said the order only made a small dent in their mountains of grain. Few farmers own vehicles that can haul grain, and many are preparing for an unusually early corn harvest, said Kelly Spitzer of Tempel Grain Elevators, which runs elevators in southeast Colorado.
That corn is headed for overstuffed elevators like Spitzer's, which are so crammed that her company has piled 900,000 bushels on the ground. "Time is of the essence," Spitzer said. "We've been very fortunate. . . . but we've got to get it off the ground."
Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Wheat Growers Assn., said elevator operators across the state were at risk. "They're really financially exposed right now," he said.
