Saskatchewan farmers have long been renowned for their resilience and resourcefulness, which are needed traits to deal with the many vagaries of agriculture in this province, such as crop prices and the weather.

Many farmers were dealt a harsh blow in last year's harvest with an early killing frost lowering the grade on most grains produced in Saskatchewan. Thus, when producers in southern Saskatchewan recorded a good harvest this year, this should have been good news for the producers - but instead, they are having to deal with many factors out of their control that seem designed to keep them down and prevent them from making a living.

At the top of the list of these factors this year are oil companies who are raking in huge profits from astronomically high gas prices, with the spike in prices coming right at harvest time for most farmers. The fuel prices also mean higher prices for other inputs, particularly fertilizer.

The weather was a major factor for many Saskatchewan farmers, although here in the southeast region, there has been excellent harvesting weather, and operations are largely done for the year well ahead of any snowfall.

With many farmers still holding on to large quantities of last year's sub-par quality harvest, this means storage capacity is at a premium this year. With the current harvest at a large volume and, in the south, of quite good quality, farmers are anxious to move this grain to the elevators to pay outstanding bills, including those large fuel bills.

This would have worked well, except that Canada's rail companies have added one more straw to the farmers' backs: they have many of the rail grain hopper cars and container units tied up, so elevators and terminals here on the Prairies are unable to get the rail car supply they need. The result is that many grain-handling facilities are plugged up, even the huge terminals that encircle Weyburn.

If this wasn't bad enough, prices for all grains, including those non-board grains like specialty crops, are all depressed to low levels.

Where are the contract calls by the Canadian Wheat Board to move the wheat and barley? They know this is the time of year farmers need to move these grains off the farm.

And more pointedly, for the railroads, why is there such a tight supply of grain hopper cars for the Prairies, at what should be the height of shipping season, after harvest and before the snow flies?

Some factors cannot be mitigated because they are not under the control of any one person, company or even nation, such as the weather - but, on the other hand, some factors are controllable, and the supply of rail cars is one of those. Rail companies ought to be aware of the need of farmers on the Prairies, and therefore ought to be responding to meet that need. Leaving farmers without a viable way to get their grain moved is one more piece of bad news farmers don't need; the rail companies need to turn things around now, and help get the 2005 harvest off the farms and out to grain-buying customers. - G.N.