Grain Elevators in Financial Trouble - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

4 elevators in North Dakota and Minnesota face bankruptcy. 

Today one candidate for Public Service Commission says it's time the PSC steps up it's efforts to keep our grain elevators in business.

Brad Crabtree says the number of recent grain elevator insolvencies shows the need for the legislature and the PSC to do more to product our Ag producers.

Crabtree says greater financial disclosures, increased elevator bonding and expanding the current Indemnity Fund from 6 million dollars to 10 million dollars will help reduce future cash sale and pre-pay losses to farmers.

(Brad Crabtree / PSC Candidate) "Think about it this way they have this insurance policy for just one penny for every five dollars of grain that they deliver to the elevator. It's a low cost form of insurance and it's piece of mind when you compare it to the financial consequences of elevator insolvency for a farmer. 

(Mike Clemens / Wimbelton Farmer) "Here you have 40-50 producers out there that are short millions of dollars. That's really a hardship to the community, I've lived it. It took years for our community to recover from that. Some of the producers weren't able to stay in business because of that. This would have helped them stay in business." 

Over the past 60 years the number of grain elevators in the state has dwindled from more than 1000 to less than 400.