BNSF to agricultural producers: We’re focused on moving your grain through harvest and beyond

By SUSAN GREEN
Staff Writer  

BNSF and our predecessors have partnered with the nation’s ag producers for more than 175 years. Throughout our shared history, we’ve made the U.S. farm supply chain one of the most efficient and productive in the world. It’s also why we move the most ag products among all the North American railroads – enough to supply roughly 1 billion people with a year’s supply of bread. 

We’ve always been a critical link for delivering agricultural products whenever and wherever they’re needed, throughout the year and especially during harvest. 

“Ag producers count on us during one of their most important seasons, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly,” said Angela Caddell, group vice president of agricultural and energy products. “We’re focused on moving their harvest, while staying flexible and responsive to meet their needs all year.” 

Long before market experts make harvest projections, our agricultural products team listens to and works closely with producers to further refine our preparedness. That includes making equipment improvements, adding infrastructure and planning resources, such as train crews. 

Another way we keep the lines of communication open is through the concierge service that our grain desk provides. This team is closely aligned with our operations teams and our Network Operations Center. It keeps our customers up to date on service throughout the year, but especially through the critical harvest period.

In 2025, our corn volumes reached a record – the most since 2018. We also broke all-time annual volume records in oil seeds/meals and ethanol last year, and in 2026 through August, we set five monthly records for trains delivered for export to the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the most since 2019. 

With the USDA projecting corn to again be strong and the soybean harvest to have a 6-percent increase compared with 2025, we’re confident we’ve demonstrated that we’re able to grow with our customers. 

Here are some of the ways we’ve prepared to move agricultural freight now and into the future by strengthening our network, adding capacity and improving fluidity and velocity across key routes in our northern corridor to domestic and export markets: 

Capital Investments 

In 2026, BNSF invested $3.6 billion in capital on our network, $2.8 billion of which went to maintenance. That brings our 10-year capital investment to more than $35 billion.  

This year’s plan also included $358 million for expansion and efficiency projects. For agricultural producers, we have several projects completed or underway on our northern corridor, where our trains carry grain west for export from ports in the PNW. 

“It’s harvest every day for us,” said Sara Johnson, vice president of our North Region operations. “We’ve put in a lot of ties and rail to harden our infrastructure on our northern tier, coupled with equipment reliability initiatives to ensure that we have a railroad positioned for growth. Teams are actively coordinating resources to ensure a successful 2026 harvest.”