The Rural Voice, 1994-09, Page 19up from the ground. The
conveyor belts, powered by
mammoth electric motors, also
help in the process of loading
the ships.
Once the weight and quality
of the incoming truckload of
grain have been established, the
information goes to an office
where staff transmit the "specs"
to the Ontario Wheat Board (in
the case of wheat) and the
Canadian Grain Commission.
Once the Board has the
information that there is enough
grain stored in the port for a
boatload, there will be an order
to the elevator to load a specific
boat with a specific amount of
grain.
Today's vessels are
mammoth compared to
those which visited
Goderich harbour when it
first started shipping grain, or
even those that first visited the
"new" elevator in 1907. A ship
today can take 25,000 tonnes of
cargo. Up to 15 outward bound
shiploads will leave Goderich
in a typical year. The elevator
has a capacity to load at the rate
of 1,000 tonnes per hour.
The process of handling corn
and soybeans is much the same
as for wheat except that a
broker will handle the shipping.
The elevator never takes
ownership of the grain, either
corning or going.
In a typical year, the
Goderich port will handle
400,000 tonnes of grain, either
outgoing or incoming. Whether
the business is larger going out
or coming in usually depends
on the weather. The wet
weather of 1992, for instance,
played havoc with the planting
of Ontario wheat. As a result in
1993 only about 44,000 metric
tonnes were handled at
Goderich, compared to an
average of about 140,000.
Wheat continues to be a major
part of the port's business. Corn
has been diminishing and
soybeans have been increasing.
But western Ontario farmers
are buyers of grains as well as
sellers. The port handles
milling quality durum wheat
Eric Kirk (above),
President of Goderich
Elevators, enjoys a
spectacular view from his
office window. Right,
facilities can load ships at
a rate of 1,000 tonnes
per hour. Trucks, as seen
from the top of the
elevator, wait for
unloading (below). A
worker uses a probe to
take a test sample from
an incoming truck
(bottom).
for the Howson and Howson
pasta milling plant in Blyth, but
the majority of the western
Canadian wheat, barley, oats and
screenings go for feed
production.
ost of the incoming
grain is handled at the
1907 terminal which
has faster unloading
(but slower loading) facilities.
From 25 to 30 ships may arrive
in a season to unload grain, but
many of these will be off-loading
only a portion of their cargo.
For incoming grains the weight
and quality of the product is
known so no testing needs to be
done. The company simply
warehouses the grain until the
broker sends a release for the
product to be shipped by truck or
railway.
And the railway, extinct in
much of western Ontario, plays
an important part at the the port.
Kirk says that the Goderich
Exeter Railroad Company, the
Texas -owned short -line operator,
has improved service and
increased the volume of its
business since taking over from
CN Rail. Railway cars are
loaded and unloaded at night
during the busy season, when
truck traffic isn't so heavy.
Boats and the railway, romantic
ties to the history of the port.
The boats may be bigger, the
railway powered by diesels
instead of steam, but there seems
to be a sense of history about the
two modes of transportation. In
fact, much of Goderich's
prosperity today depends on
those two forces coming
together a century ago. In 1866
the Grand Trunk Railway built
the first grain terminal in
Goderich, a large wooden
structure. But a crisis arose in
1897 when the building burned
to the ground. It appeared for a
while that Goderich might lose
the business, but a local citizens'
committee went to work to
recruit seven entrepreneurs from
across Ontario to form "The
Goderich Elevator and Transit
Company Limited" in 1898. The
Grand Trunk added the
insurance money from the los\
SEPTEMBER 1994 15