CN Rail says delayed spring planting across parts of the Prairies is keeping grain moving at an unusually strong pace this month, while the railway now expects a sharp slowdown in demand as farmers work to finish seeding.
David Przednowek, assistant vice-president of grain for CN, says planting delays have shifted the normal seasonal slowdown in grain movement later into the spring.
“We've got some significant planting delays in parts of the Prairies in particular, certain central and northern parts of Saskatchewan,” notes Przednowek.
He says grain demand remained strong through most of May, rather than dipping earlier in the month as it typically does during spring seeding.
“What we saw with the slow start to spring seeding is that the timing of when you typically see that dip in demand for grain movement in May associated with spring seeding has been pushed back a bit,” says Przednowek.
“Through the first three weeks of May, grain demand and grain movement was very strong,” adds Przednowek.
Near-record grain movement
Przednowek says CN moved more than 760,000 tonnes of grain and processed grain products during shipment week 42, which covered the week of May 16.
He says the late planting campaign has extended the flow of grain into the supply chain longer than usual.
“It's just meant that longer tail with grain flowing into the supply chain as a result of those planting delays,” remarks Przednowek.
Przednowek says CN is now approaching another monthly milestone for grain shipments.
“Total grain shipments through the first 25 days of the month, just over 2.5 million, which is closing right in on the previous record set in 2025,” adds Przednowek.
He says there are still several days left in the month to officially surpass the previous mark.
Przednowek says reaching the milestone would mark the eighth monthly grain shipment record for the current crop year.
Demand expected to dip
While grain movement has remained unusually high through May, Przednowek says demand is expected to fall sharply in the coming weeks as producers finish seeding.
“It's getting quite late in the planting campaign,” continues Przednowek.
“Some areas I mentioned are quite far behind, and we expect a significant dip here in demand, more pronounced than you would have otherwise expected with a more gradual onset onto planting between the last week of May and through the first week of June,” remarks Przednowek.
He says CN expects grain movement to rebound once seeding operations are completed.
“We expect that to recover once we get out on the other side of spring planting, once we get to the second week of June,” mentions Przednowek.
]]>
