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As the economy gathers steam, the railways could be busier than ever, making it harder for grain shippers to empty their silos and for farmers to sell their grain.

U.S. farmers are expecting bumper crops this fall, and export demand for grain crops is higher than a year ago. But so is demand for railcars. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has repeatedly reported that freight traffic on U.S. railroads is up this year from a year ago. Intermodal traffic, or freight traffic that uses two or more methods of transportation, is up 9.5 percent from last year, which was also a record year.

"Ohio has traditionally not felt as much pain of a national rail shortage in the past as other regions because of our state’s great highway system, but now that the cost of trucking has increased, we’re going to feel the pinch," according to Constance Jackson, OFBF vice president of agricultural ecology.

"The United States has consistently neglected its infrastructure, while our international competitors have steadily been improving theirs, and now we’re in a crunch," Jackson said. "And at the same time, we’ve got high oil and energy prices, which means it’s more expensive to ship grain by truck."

Jackson said maintaining the nation’s infrastructure has to be a priority. "International trade is important to our viability yet it is becoming more and more difficult to move our products to our ports and even to our own domestic customers. Our increasing challenges in moving product by rail is one of the contributors to it being cheaper for processors in the southeast U.S. to import soybeans from Brazil than buy from U.S. producers in the Midwest," she said.

Railroads move nearly half of U.S. freight, and manufacturers and retailers are concerned about the railcar crunch in the run-up to Christmas, when imports of consumer goods will increase.

Representatives of the nation's major freight railroads met with U.S. industry representatives in September to talk about the railroads' service plans for the peak fall shipping season.

"When it became apparent earlier this year that railroads would be handling record volumes of freight this fall, the industry decided it would be a good idea to let our customers know how we planned to handle the traffic," said Edward Hamberger, AAR's president and chief executive officer. Railroads are hiring more crew members, adding cars and setting cargo limits.

The American Farm Bureau Federation believes requiring more competition in the railroad industry also would help relieve some congestion in the long term. Railroads have consolidated over the last 20 years, and farmers in some parts of the country have just one railroad to ship their commodities.

In the meantime, farmers need to make their transportation plans now, Jackson said, "or have a plan in place for storage if they can’t move their grain."

She added, "The United States cannot continue to let our infrastructure issues slide by. We have to make its maintenance a priority and convince our government and Congress to understand that an efficient infrastructure should be a national priority."