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Sauk Valley Media/ SaukValley.com • Wednesday, May 11, 2022

SHAW MEDIA

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Today’s Farm WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022

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Also inside ...

Trade winds are blowing across the big pond 25 Farmers around the world find common ground 26 The trucking industry is carrying a heavy load 28 Buying bio? Now there’s a way to find out 29 Don’t try to beat a train — you’ll lose 31 RUSTY SCHRADER/SVM ILLUSTRATION

TODAY’S FARM COVER STORY

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The pandemic changed the way farmland is sold, and brokers say that if auctioneers don’t change with the times, they’ll become ‘obsolete pretty quick’

BY TOM C. DORAN | Shaw Media AgriNews Publications BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The auction business was forced to pivot quickly in its methods of selling farmland when the pandemic hit in 2020.

“The auction industry has evolved and changed significantly, probably never to go back to a methodology that we were used to. It may be more a blending of online and in person, in some cases,” said David Klein, First Mid Ag Services designated managing broker and auctioneer.

“It was a drastic shift from a marketing perspective, and if you’re not willing to change, you’re going to become obsolete pretty quick in this marketplace from an auction perspective,” added Spencer Smith, Hertz Farm Management farm manager and real estate broker.

Klein and Smith teamed up to look back on the evolution of the auction business over the past 24 months during the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Manager and Rural Appraisers’ land values conference March 17.

First Mid Ag Services’ last in-person auction prior to the close of public gatherings was March 12, 2020.

“By March 25, 2020, we were holding the auctions outside to finish them out for the spring. We were putting bids on a whiteboard where people could see it from their vehicles. We had guys honking horns and

raising cards from their trucks, anything we could do to get it done. That was one of the oddest experiences I think I ever had, but it worked,” Klein said.

“After that, we were shut down. We did not have an online presence at that point. We had no methodology to conduct auctions. We had started the process of exploring that, but we hadn’t jumped into it yet.”

Small steps Auction services had to figure out ways to get better and adapt during those early months of shutdowns of large public gatherings.

Timed, online-only auctions without the presence of a live auctioneer were among the first approaches using software that was already in the marketplace.

“Early on in the pandemic just from an auction industry standpoint, I saw people selling on Facebook Live, I saw people selling on Zoom calls, I saw people selling on FaceTime calls, you name it. It was just the Wild West all of a sudden, and the structure was there, it’s just we had to adapt to it and take on this technology,” Smith said.

Learning on the fly

With an online bid platform came many challenges.

BIDDING cont’d to page 24

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Bidding farewell to the past

Sauk Valley Media/ SaukValley.com • Wednesday, May 11, 2022

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TODAY’S FARM COVER STORY BIDDING cont’d from page 23 “It was almost you had to learn as you go. We had to learn to educate buyers better. We had to learn how to take questions from people. We weren’t meeting at a conference center or the VFW or Legion Hall where somebody could ask a question to a bid assistant or talk to an auctioneer beforehand about the farm,” Smith said.

“We couldn’t interact with bidders.

Ways we were able to combat that is utilizing phone numbers for people to reach out to us during the sale, using technology, making sure we get title commitments, purchase contracts, all of those things posted to the website prior to the auction day where traditionally we’d have that on a bulletin board in the back of the room.”

Navigating the changes

First Mid Ag Services shifted to a combination of in-person, with social distancing guidelines, and online bidding in the summer of 2020 for land auctions.

“We added a camera and some software at that point. We were posting the bids on a whiteboard in front of a machine shed so people could be there.

What we did in the case of a Sept. 22, 2020, auction, for example, is we allowed people to pre-bid with sealed bids and

the top 12 bidders could participate in person or online,” Klein said.

“Shortly thereafter we went to completely online-only auctions.”

During this transition in the way farmKlein land was auctioned, Smith noticed that farmer buyers who continued to be active in the marketplace adapted to this new auction method very quickly.

“Guys have been buying machinery online for years and for them to buy something through an app on the phone or clicking a button on the computer, they weren’t necessarily afraid to do that,” Smith said.

“I think it was maybe some of the investors and maybe even we as brokers were a little bit scared of that because of the whole thought process of we’re selling farms online now as opposed to sitting down and signing a contract or doing it in person. So, how do we verify those bidders, how do we do all of those things?”

pany was are we going to be able to communicate properly if they can’t hear us, or they can still get video, but they can’t hear us, and we can’t see them or hear them,” Klein said.

Smith “One of the things that Hertz did that I thought was fantastic was they put a countdown clock in at the end, that way you knew, even if you were online and didn’t have audio, if you wanted to bid again, you needed to click a button or it’s going to be over.

“So, figuring out ways to communicate to the buyers was a whole new experience because we’re not interacting in person.

“We’ve evolved to the live in person with online bidding and we have people both far away and people close-by bidding. That’s a hybrid approach that some have enacted, as well, and in some cases that works well, in other cases just doing the straight online works well.”

Broadband challenge

First Mid Ag Services documented the land auction prices during the transition from what was the norm to the online/in-person combinations.

During 2020, land sale prices at live in-person auctions were higher than

Using online bidding at any level also brings up another potential challenge — broadband width capabilities in rural areas.

“One of our concerns which our com-

Buyers adapt

those sold online only.

Buyers began to adapt to the new approach as time went on. Farmland sale prices via a virtual/in-person combination auctions were higher than the in-person only auction sale prices from January through March 2021.

“We started getting the results that we hoped we would see with the online bidding platforms. Buyers started to adapt. Our prices were going up. We were seeing the results that made sense and we were trying find ways to improve how we did it,” Klein said.

Smith has seen other advantages to an in-person/online combination with its broader reach into the buyer profile.

“No longer as a buyer do I have to coordinate with that broker, disclose that I’m interested. Some people want to be very discrete when they go to buy a farm. I can sit wherever I’m at and bid from the phone. Some will stand in the room and bid on the phone,” Smith said.

“The big thing is your reach is so much broader having an online piece and that’s why from a personal standpoint I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I think it’s here to stay and you’re going to have to adapt to it and we’re going to have to overcome it.”

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-410-2256 or tdoran@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

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After a few stalled steps, the U.S., EU and UK are working to strengthen the global ag market

BY TIMOTHY EGGERT FarmWeek

Creating and marketing highvalue, top-quality goods will be vital for Illinois farmers to increase the number of their products in the hands — and mouths — of European consumers.

That was a major takeaway from meetings between a 12-member Illinois Farm Bureau delegation and international agriculture officials, industry groups and European farmers during a Market Study Tour of Belgium, France and the United Kingdom from Feb. 28 to March 12.

In France and its capital, Paris, food and the framework around eating are ritualistic and idolized.

Parisians, for instance, place a high emphasis on the freshness and quality of their food, as well as the means — strictly organic or blocks away in an urban garden — through which it was grown. They’re also willing to pay more for it.

Those attitudes were on display in various restaurants and open-air, street-level food markets across the city, where producers sell their products directly to consumers.

They were also present at the Paris International Agricultural Show, where a slurry of food and drink vendors offered endless samples of meats, cheeses, breads and wines to patrons.

“They’re direct marketing to consumers, to the end users,” said Molly Rosentreter, Macoupin County Farm Bureau director. “They have specialized products ... and the marketing they use here really is a notch above

what we use at home.”

The value of those products is protected under an EU food quality policy, called geographic indicators (GI), which establish intellectual property rights for specific products, whose qualities, ingredients or production methods are linked to a specific region.

By EU law, GI must be labeled on a packaged agricultural product or displayed when it is sold at a street market or grocery. There are more than 5,000 EU and non-EU GIs protected in member states.

EU law also dictates that GIs be recognized in trade agreements with other countries, like the United States.

A 2021 study from the European Commission found that although the GIs serve as an important marketing tool for the global ag market, there are serious issues with the scheme.

“Main limitations are the low consumer awareness and understanding of the schemes in some member states, the complex and long registration procedures and certain weaknesses in controls at the downstream stages of the value chain,” the report said.

Future trade with the EU GIs and other trade schemes could dictate the requirements of a future agricultural trade deal between the U.S. and the EU, said Mark Gebhards, IFB executive director of governmental affairs and commodities.

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Negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) launched in 2013 were dead by 2016 and formally closed in 2019.

Many groups the IFB delegation met with at the Paris International Agricultural Show voiced support for renewed talks around the TTIP, or a similar deal.

“We do not spend enough time talking between European and American growers,” said Franck Laborde, secretary general of the General Association of Corn Producers.

“Maybe now is the time to think twice about that and start stronger relationships between the U.S. and the EU.” Since the United Kingdom left the EU in 2020, agricultural trade policy has largely been in limbo, with government officials “struggling to re-align and rewrite EU policies into a domestic context,” Gebhards said.

Nonetheless, the delegation had

some “great discussions” with U.S. Embassy officials in London, Gebhards said, adding a trade agreement between the U.S. and the UK is “back front and center.”

In 2020, the UK imported $2.7 billion in U.S. ag products, and the U.S imported about $1.1 billion in UK ag products.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack earlier this year announced the USDA will sponsor an international trade mission to the UK. Vilsack’s announcement, and the IFB Market Study Tour, comes as the UK has amassed a collection of trade deals since leaving the EU. In the past 18 months it has signed more than 70 different trade agreements with other countries.

The UK government also entered into formal negotiations in 2021 to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the U.S. left under the Trump administration.

TRADE cont’d to page 26

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Trade winds are blowing across the big pond

Sauk Valley Media/ SaukValley.com • Wednesday, May 11, 2022

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TODAY’S FARM GLOBAL GROWING

Common ground

TRADE cont’d from page 25 Among those in the delegation on the Market Study Tour were Illinois Farm Bureau Vice President, and Polo resident, Brian Duncan. Duncan was re-elected to a 2-year terms as VP in December 2021, a role he’s served in as VP for the past 4 years. He previously served as the Ogle County Farm Bureau president and also served on the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Swine Advisory Committee, National Pork Producers Council Price Discovery Task Force and Ogle County Pork Producers board of directors. A graduate of Sauk Valley Community College, he and his wife, Kelly, raise corn, soybeans, wheat, pigs and cattle on their farm near Polo; they have four children.

Duncan said he’s confident the meetings “forged close bonds” with officials and will hopefully lead to more trade opportunities for members.

“The U.S. is a producing nation with the ability to export,” Duncan said. “And Illinois Farm Bureau supports any policy that boosts trade and market opportunities in other countries.”

This story was distributed through a

Though they’re worlds apart, European and American farmers aren’t that much different

BY TIMOTHY EGGERT

Timothy Eggert/FarmWeekNow.com

Illinois Farm Bureau Vice President Brian Duncan of Polo, left, and former IFB Director Brad Temple inspect milking cows at a multi-generational dairy farm in Le Carrel, France. The two were part of a 12-member Illinois Farm Bureau delegation that went on a Market Study Tour of Belgium, France and the United Kingdom from Feb. 28 to March 12.

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FarmWeek Looking across a decades-old stand of 6,500 apple trees, Vianney Pelletier is content with his family’s orchard, cider mill and dairy in northern Normandy.

Pelletier doesn’t plan to expand the current production of apple juice, ciders, Calvados and jams. He’s not even sure whether he’ll reestablish parts of the orchard after they age past their maximum production life or whether he’ll eventually take over the business.

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“We are OK with the farm,” Pelletier told an Illinois Farm Bureau Market Study Tour delegation during a recent visit. “Our life is good ... we would not want to (expand) and give up the happy, the good life.”

A 12-person delegation made up of IFB board members and staff, Illinois farmers and other agribusiness representatives traveled to Belgium, France and the United Kingdom from Feb. 28 to March 12.

Apart from rolling views of the French countryside and a loyal farm dog named Sheepy, life here hasn’t always been ideal. The business has had to lean on farm tours, on-farm lodging and other agritourism efforts to boost revenues.

There’s also the constant pivoting around variations in yields and returns caused by environmental and economic factors.

Sound familiar?

That tension — balancing an agricultural livelihood with the quality of rural life — is just as ubiquitous in European agriculture as it is in American agriculture.

And similar to American farmers, European farmers are also aging (see graphic at right). European farming operations are also mostly multi-generational, with the total number of farmers declining, too.

What their farms look like, however, is much different than in the U.S. America has an average farm size of 485 acres, more than twice what it is in the United Kingdom, and more than 12 times the size of European Union farms (see graphic).

All those demographics were on display at a 120head, 345-acre dairy and beef farm near La Carrel in northern Normandy, where the family had recently

transitioned their operation, started in 1985, to their son.

Pelletier said small farms in the area are consolidating and large farms are growing. Those changes have shifted the price of milk and meat sold to the local cooperative.

He’d like to expand his own operation to remain competitive with the larger farms, but “it would be complicated” because of environmental and other ag-related regulations.

Much like American farmers, French farmers also face pressure, and in some cases mandates, from the government and consumers to move toward environmentally friendly farming practices, according to Antoine Lefèvre, the French senator who represents a rural area in the northern region of France, near the Belgium border. That pressure, he said, can collide with a producer’s bottom line.

“It’s all about finding a sweet spot between sensi-

ble (organic) farming and conventional farming,” Lefèvre said. “It’s all about supporting farmers through that transition. We have to transition but that transition has to make sense economically.”

Since 1962, the EU has attempted to balance the ag scales in its member countries through a range of financial and legislative support under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). It includes direct payments to farmers to help offset a loss of farm income due to disruptions in markets and other factors.

The program has been reformed and expanded through the years, and in 2020, CAP totaled nearly 60 billion euros, or 35% of the entire EU budget.

The United Kingdom, which left the EU in 2020, distributes a similar subsidy. Each country — England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — administers the payment alongside tailored environmental regulations.

Lefèvre said the CAP payments are crucial for French farmers. In 2017, 20% couldn’t make ends meet on production income alone.

But with EU subsidies becoming increasingly more intertwined with environmental regulations and the French government passing more rules limiting what producers can do on their land, Lefèvre said farmers are worried about competitiveness distortion.

“EU laws and national rules can have a big impact on local farming,” Lefèvre said. “They could have strong impact on competitiveness (and) make French farmers less competitive than other European farmers.”

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association.

For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.

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COMMON cont’d from page 26

Sauk Valley Media/ SaukValley.com • Wednesday, May 11, 2022

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TODAY’S FARM TRUCKING

Transportation industry carrying a heavy load Gas prices, labor shortage, regulations … America’s carriers say it’s getting harder to keep on truckin’

BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek

Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, Chicago’s largest specialty contract carrier, doesn’t look too far down the road when evaluating his business these days.

It’s more about the immediate need to keep trucks on the road and continuing to serve customers in an industry dealing with rising costs, tighter margins and a dwindling supply of drivers and even truck parts.

“It’s one day at a time,” Kucharski said. “We’re trying to stay in business.”

“2008 I thought was a bad year (due to the housing market collapse and subsequent recession), but this is crazy what’s happening,” he said. “We’re having one anomaly after another.”

COVID shutdowns and worker shortages, which hit the industry in 2020, are being compounded by inflation, the Ukraine war and economic sanctions in the past year among a

host of other issues.

Meanwhile, the American Trucking Association (ATA) estimates the industry was short about 80,000 drivers nationwide in 2021. And that number could double by 2030.

The situation impacts everything from the movement of farm goods and food supplies to the delivery of many dry goods. Estimates suggest more than 70% of freight is hauled by truck in the U.S. “We go from the Midwest to the West Coast. We do refrigerated and frozen (freight) and bring produce back from California,” Kucharski said of his business, which operates 350 trailers (48 and 53 feet in length) with 250 tractors.

“We’re mainly in the food supply chain.”

But, the chain has been rocked by diesel fuel costs that increased by $2 per gallon as of the first week of April compared to last year to a national average of $5.14 per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“Skyrocketing fuel (costs) are having a major impact on our industry,”

Kucharski said. “We have a fuel surcharge we add to the invoice but, when it jumps this much, there’s a lag that kills us. It hits the medium to smaller carriers more because they don’t have the luxury to buy (fuel) in bulk or get bulk discounts.”

Steep fuel costs and driver shortages aren’t the only issues making it difficult to keep trucks on the road.

“I have some trucks down waiting for parts (including water pumps from Japan and air filters from Puerto Rico),” Kucharski said. “And the used (truck) market is skyrocketing.”

What about updating his fleet with new trucks and trailers?

“Manufacturers have said don’t even think about it until 2023,” he said. “I can’t even get a bid on a new trailer because they’re still trying to work out the steel price.

“We typically buy new equipment (annually) and rotate old out,” he noted.

“Now there’s a lag that might come back to hurt us.”

As for the ongoing shortage of drivers, ATA reports a number of reasons: Some left the industry during COVID shutdowns, the rising age of truckers

contributes to a higher rate of retirement, and only 7% of drivers are women, well below their desired representation in the industry.

Tighter regulations also make it more difficult to recruit new drivers, including the federally mandated age of 21 to drive commercially across state lines, according to ATA. “Over-regulations make it difficult to operate,” Kucharski said. “We’d welcome lawmakers to sit down with us.”

Some would-be and current drivers also struggle to pass drug tests, a situation exacerbated by the fact some states legalized marijuana while the substance is still banned at the federal level, according to ATA. “We’re all fighting for the same drivers and trying to hang on to the drivers we have,” Kucharski said. “We increased our drivers’ pay twice already and we’re debating whether to raise it again.

“All these dominoes come down to our business and the end-user — the American people.”

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.

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New regulations call for manufacturers to disclose presence of bioengineered ingredients on food labels

BY KATIE ZELECHOWSKI

The recently enacted National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard defines bioengineered foods as “those that contain detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques and cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.” Shoppers might be surprised to find bioengineered labels on common products they’ve been eating for years.

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Thanks to a recent labeling law, regulated food manufacturers, importers and certain retailers must indicate the presence of bioengineered food or ingredients on product packaging.

“I’m a mom of young kids myself. I’ve got an almost 6-yearold and an almost-2-year-old so, I completely sympathize with moms and parents at the store who are just like ‘I don’t know what to feed my kid’,” said Leia Flure, a registered and licensed dietitian and University of Illinois Extension nutrition education specialist.

Photos: Metro News Service & Katie Zelechowski of the Illinois Farm Bureau

LABELS cont’d to page 30

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TODAY’S FARM DIET ally and figuratively,” Flure said.

“There might be some unintended Congress passed the National consequences; I think it could potenBioengineered Food Disclosure Law tially undermine people’s trust in in 2016, with a mandatory compli- the food system.” ance date of this year. Administered While people might be unfamiliar by the U.S. Department of Agricul- with the terminology, innovative ture, the standard ensures food agricultural production techniques manufacturers disclose whether have been used for decades. foods contain, or may contain, bioSarah Gallo, vice president of engineered (also known as geneti- agriculture and environment for the cally modified or GMO) ingredients Biotechnology Innovation Organizausing text or symbols on product tion (BIO), said biotechnology has packaging. continued to grow because more The standard defines bioengicompanies, farmers and even conneered foods as “those that contain sumers recognize its benefits, such detectable genetic material that has as reducing food waste and decreasbeen modified through certain lab ing the carbon footprint of growing techniques and cannot be created through conventional breeding or food.

“We can always do a better job found in nature.”

Shoppers might be surprised to talking about those environmental learn that many of the products benefits and how the pressure to they’ve been eating for years have continue to feed a population that’s been improved through biotechnol- growing is going to need to have innovation as part of ogy. But Flure says the solution — and I the presence of new I’m not entirely think there’s a good labels shouldn’t stop sure that bioen- history to demonthem from buying the same foods they gineered as a rebranding strate that,” Gallo said. d i d b e f o r e t h e of GMO will be bought BIO’s member change. companies work “ S c i e n t i f i c by consumers, literally across food systems, research has shown and figuratively. There ag practices, biofuels time and time again might be some uninand industrial-based that bioengineered processes to develop foods are just as safe tended consequences; I as their non-engi- think it could potentially t e c h n o l o g y t h a t n e e r e d c o u n t e r - undermine people’s improves products. parts,” Flure said.

For example, bioS h e h e l p s i n f o r m trust in the food system.” technology has been Leia Flure credited with saving consumers about the science behind food Leia Flure, a registered and the papaya from a production by conlicensed dietitian and University devastating virus, tributing to GMOAnof Illinois Extension nutrition creating seeds that swers.com. She also education specialist p r o d u c e c r o p s consults for Bayer requiring less tillage Crop Science. and pesticides, and For people who need a place to helping to lead the charge developstart, Flure suggests looking past ing COVID-19 vaccines. the front of food labels to read the “Disruptive tech” developed by nutrition facts panel on the back. these, and other, companies continThat’s where consumers will find ues to transform the American food details about how products can system to increase food access and affect their health. address climate change, according “I think it’s important to look for to Gallo. foods that are higher in fiber, higher “More of the technology that’s in vitamins and minerals, and lower coming into the market on the food in things like saturated fat and side, and even on the industrial side, sodium,” she said. is really consumer-focused,” Gallo It’s also important to note that said. “The reasons these products bioengineered labels don’t always are coming to market are not only apply to every ingredient in a product. A veggie pizza made with only for the benefit of farmers but also for two GMO ingredients will be labeled consumers and thinking about how as genetically modified, even if the they directly interact with the techother ingredients might’ve been nology in their daily lives.”

LABELS cont’d from page 29

grown using organic or conventional products and practices.

“I’m not entirely sure that bioengineered as a rebranding of GMO will be bought by consumers, liter-

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association.

For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.

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HanfordSchuneman Insurance Agency 312 Washington St, Prophetstown (815) 537.2301 www.hanford-ins.com

Kaczmarzyk Agency Inc. 1022 S IL Rt. 2, Oregon 815-732-3148 kaczins@outlook.com

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Stenzel Insurance 102 N. Elm, Franklin Grove 815-456-2319 roxy@stenzelinsurance.com

Miller Insurance Group

427 N. Main Street, Rochelle 815-561-9911 fax: 815-561-9912 email: insure10@frontier.com

Query Insurance Agency 330 May Mart Drive, Rochelle 815-562-4152 tbecker@crumhalsted.com

Cornerstone Insurance Agency 102 W. Main, Morrison 815-772-2793 lsandrock@2cornerstone.com

Sauk Valley Insurance Services 109 6th Street, Dixon 815-288-2541 www.saukvalleyinsurance.com

Leffelman & Associates Amboy 815-857-2125 lisa@leffelmanassoc.com LaMoille 815-638-2171 lexi@leffelmanassoc.com Sublette 815-849-5219 chris@leffelmanassoc.com

Baylor Insurance Agency

Mel Saad Agency

Lee Center 815-857-2716 rbaylor1@gmail.com

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BRADFORD VICTOR-ADAMS

MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY Member Owned and Operated

Our Contact Information 120 W. South Street, Franklin Grove 815-456-2334 www.bradfordmutual.com SM-ST1978426 SM-ST1791864

TODAY’S FARM SAFETY

Officials warn drivers, especially farmers: Don’t try to beat a train — you’ll lose

BY TAMMIE SLOUP FarmWeek

Operation Lifesaver’s Chip Pew says Illinois has an exposure problem.

The state ranks second in the number of highway-railroad crossings (14,000) and track miles, and boasts the third-largest highway system in the country.

While those numbers may seem impressive, they also mean a higher probability of vehicle-versus-train crashes, especially if it's a slow-moving farm vehicle.

Pew, state coordinator with Illinois Operation Lifesaver, wants to lower those odds.

Operation Lifesaver started nearly 50 years ago, and at that time, Illinois had 800 crashes and 100 deaths involving trains.

During the past decade, the average has dropped to 120 crashes and 25 fatalities — but that's still not good enough.

“Our goal is to get to zero,” said Pew, who has investigated more than 500 train fatalities. “But no matter what we do from an engineering perspective, what we do from an education perspective, and even how law enforcement is helping us enforce those laws, there’s always going to be those people that think it should be their right as to whether or not they’re going to try and beat a train.

“And even if it’s a tie with a train, you

lose. You’re not going to get another chance.”

Pew said communities along the High Speed Rail Corridor — a set of high speed rail lines connecting Chicago Union Station to various parts of the state and beyond, one of which already runs from Chicago to St. Louis (go to idothsr.org to see the map) — will soon see train speeds increase from 79 mph to 90 mph, meaning longer warning times for approaching trains along the route.

In some cases, trains will activate the crossings without being seen, and drivers might think the crossing is providing them with false information since they can’t see a train. And even if a train is able to come to an emergency stop, it

can take quite a long way to do it — up to 1 1/2 miles for a train going at 60 mph.

He also reminds drivers of the blue Emergency Notification System signs at railroad crossings (photo at left), which lists the crossing number and the phone number for railroad authorities who can warn trains of your situation.

For example, if a farmer is driving a slow-moving vehicle that will take some time to make it across the crossing, the driver can call the number to learn when the next train is due.

“You can use (the sign) proactively in addition to using it to report (incidents),” Pew said.

One surprising statistic: 25% of train-vehicle collisions occur when a vehicle runs into the side of a train, Pew said. He noted trains hang 3 feet over the sides of tracks on both sides.

While the line of sight at many rural crossings is pretty good, Pew cautioned drivers that trains may only appear to be traveling slow.

“It can be an optical illusion ... be wary of the train that you see down the tracks thinking that you’re going to have enough time to get across. You’re always better to just play it safe,” Pew said.

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.

We have protected area farm families for over 150 years and will continue to do so for many more.

Find out how important local, hometown insurance can be. Call one of our friendly agents today!

First Class Insurance Agency Milledgeville 815-225-7777 Dixon 815-284-7070 SM-ST1978401

Hugh F. Miller Insurance Agency, Inc. Rock Falls 815-626-1300

Scholl Insurance Agency Polo 815-946-2324

Leffelman & Associates Inc. Amboy 815-857-2125 Sublette 815-849-5219

Harrison Insurance Group Dixon IL 815-284-7737

SHAW MEDIA Sauk Valley Media/ SaukValley.com • Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Stop, look, stay alive

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