NPRS Powers Record 2024 Harvest in North Dakota & Minnesota

Northern Plains Railroad car running through the midwest in fall

February 20, 2025

Harvest 2024 Report: NPRS Helps Deliver One of the Best Crops in Years

After the usual worries and predictions, the 2024 cereal, corn, and oil seed crop along NPR’s network in North Dakota and Minnesota proved to be generally of high quality, with good yields. The results are good news for our growers, communities, and shippers, and for the railroad industry.

On the east end of NPR’s Devils Lake Sub, based on reports from stations Warren and Alvarado, wheat and soybean harvest wrapped up in October with 75 to 80 bushels per acre average production on wheat and 45 to 50 bushels per acre on beans, above the average. Corn as usual continued to be harvested into November. The Forest River area saw some wheat crops come in at a whopping 95 bushels per acre. Our shipping partners at Honeyford were seeing corn bushels per acre at 185 to 190, which is approximately 20 acres above the normal in the region.

NPR’s experienced crews are shown handling one hundred carloads of North Dakota’s finest wheat, originating at Tolley, ND, down the Kenmare hill in mid-October 2024.

Across North Dakota, “bagged grain” is common in the fields, with bins full of 2024’s above-average crops.

Whether small or large, combines were rolling, handling high-quality crops across the NPR’s growing region.

“CHS Manager Daryl at Devils Lake said that the soybean crop locally was the best it’s been since he started there,” according to NPR’s Jared Muir at the Fordville HQ. “Nekoma, Alsen, and Calvin, on the west end, also reported better than average crops.”

In western North Dakota, despite some dry spells early and a bit of wild weather, all wheat and soybean acres were harvested in October as well. Tolley, Russell, and Wiley Terminal all reported positive quality and generally above-average yields. “This year, from NPR’s perspective, the Minnesota and North Dakota grain crops are something to be thankful for,” said Dan Mack, EVP Marketing and Sales. “We’re always looking for new markets for our producers as well, and the future with CPKC looks promising in this respect as new market opportunities continue to surface with the expanded network.”