With harvest only a few weeks away, many farmers in the area may be wondering if the Ceres Global Ag. Corp's grain handling facility at the new commodity logistics hub at Northgate, Sask. will be completed in time to accept some of this year's crop.

Construction has started on the temporary grain loading facility and Ceres anticipates the project will be ready to load grain this fall, said Doug Speers, chairman of Ceres Global Ag.

When this happens, farmers will be able to truck their wheat or oats to the facility where the trucks would be weighed and crops sold. The grains would then be placed in the temporary storage facility on-site, and then loaded into train cars for export. Currently the plan is to accept wheat and oats, however, when the permanent grain elevator is in place, more types of crops could be handled.

In other news regarding the project, the horizontal build (track build) is on schedule. Approval has been received for border crossings.

The following data regarding the entire project is from the Ceres Global Ag. Corp's website.

"Ceres owns 1,500 acres of land at Northgate, Saskatchewan, where it is constructing a new commodity logistics hub including high-efficiency rail loops, capable of handling unit trains of up to 120 railcars. A grain handling and shipping facility and trans-loading and shipping oil will be the initial focus, followed by a logistics centre that will unload in-bound equipment and materials for Saskatchewan's booming resource economy.

The Northgate Hub will connect to the BNSF Railway network, giving shippers direct access to customers in 28 American states, numerous Pacific and Gulf ports, and Mexico, along BNSF's 32,000 mile network, including over 45 crude-by-rail destinations. Access to many other strategic interior locations and Atlantic ports are also available through the BNSF's inter-line rail connections."

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