Grain Pains on the Plains; A Look at Production

Rail shipping issues on the High Plains have been the focus of several media stories. The challenges have even created political interest (here and here). While the situation is very complicated, the slow rail shipment of grain has created local pricing issues.

Several factors have contributed to the situation (including shipping demands associated with crude oil), but the purpose of this post isn’t to pull all those apart. Instead, we wanted to focus on how grain production has changed in this region.  Previous posts have considered broader, nationwide, aspects of this trend, including large increases in the number of corn acres planted and decreases in CRP acres. These two trends, collectively, led us to wonder what has happened to grain production on the High Plains.

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