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A lawmaker in Ukraine says infrastructure is crumbling as crops are piled in fields, makeshift buildings
A state senator in Ukraine says farmers are running out of room to store grain.
Tom Brewer of Nebraska says harvest is underway and poor road conditions are making it nearly impossible to transport grain. “They’re moving so many tanks on trailers that weren’t designed for that weight and they’re tearing the roads up horribly. To move the farm products in the future is going to be more and more challenging because you’re literally going to rip up your equipment trying to get it from point a to point b.”
He doesn’t anticipate that changing until the war is over.
He tells Brownfield poor infrastructure, port blockades and in increase crop production has exacerbated the problem. “I think everyone is praying that the war is over before the freeze comes. If you compound the wheat, barley and oats that are now at the limit of places to store, and then you throw the corn on top of that, I don’t know but there could be a breaking point where we lose a lot of crops.”
He says wheat, barley and oats are piled several feet high on the edges of fields because grain elevators are at capacity. “The crops are literally going from the field to the grinder to make the wheat and bag into 50-pound bags then brought forward to the mobile bakeries and they’re then making it. From the field to someone’s mouth might only be a few days.”
Brewer arrived in Ukraine last month to provide humanitarian relief and is expected to return to Omaha next week.
I really appreciate this interview from a farmer’s prospective.