WASHINGTON – Union Pacific has been delivering unit grain trains as scheduled to a major California poultry and feed producer since federal regulators issued an emergency service order last month.
But Fowler Farms, the largest chicken producer in the West, is seeking a 90-day extension of the emergency service order, which expired on July 17. Thousands of dairy cattle and millions of chickens and turkeys depend upon corn UP delivers to Fowler’s facilities from the Midwest.
The corn inventories at Fowler Farms’ facilities at Traver and Turlock, Calif., have been replenished thanks to UP’s more reliable service since the Surface Transportation Board intervened in June, the company told regulators on July 15.
Fowler Farms fears that UP’s service could backslide due to ongoing crew shortages and the potential for a nationwide railroad strike.
Due to “the high consumption rates of the huge numbers of livestock dependent on feed processed from the corn delivered by UP, Foster Farms is still at risk if UP’s service begins to falter,” the company told the STB.
UP should be directed to continue to carry out its service commitments, Fowler told the board, “but only to the extent necessary to maintain the current cycle times of 10-11 days UP has been achieving for trains F11, F12, F14, and F15.”
Foster Farms still wants weekly conferences with the STB, but says daily status reports from UP are no longer necessary.
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