Charles City, IA- The list of troubles for area farmers is growing. First came the rains, now there's no fuel. People who sell and transport liquid petroleum or “LP” gas say this is the worst shortage they've ever seen.
When the corn is wet farmers need to dry it, they do that by running "corn dryers" on liquid propane.
Propane experts say there are plenty of supplies; it's getting it here to Iowa that's the problem.
This is one of the busiest times of the year for Marble Rock Farmer Coop General Manager Steve Bodensteiner. He's got lots of corn to get into his bins, but it's what he doesn't have that's causing him the biggest hassle.
"We've just got every farmer who's drying corn wants LP, we've had to actually shut people off and some guys actually have their dryers shut off right now because they're waiting on LP from us."
In a typical harvest season, he can usually get as much liquid propane as his clients need. But this year he's being allocated a certain amount.
"Today we can get one semi load of product per day, the wait's 12 hours to get the product."
So he's forced to send his drivers to other states like Kansas.
And Bodensteiner's not alone.
"I've been in the business 25 years, and this is the worst we've seen for shortages," CH Wilson Transport salesman and dispatcher Dennis Rippentrop.
His drivers haul fuel all over the US. They can't transport their usual propane shipments either.
"Typically we're gonna do like three to five loads per truck per day and just as an example yesterday we had several trucks that we're only able to get one load in a 24 hour period," Rippentrop said.
Last week the governor's of Iowa and Minnesota allowed exemptions for truckers hauling propane, allowing them to drive 24 hours a day.
But Rippentrop says that doesn't help when his trucks reach the state line.
"When we live in the northern part of Iowa where we go into Iowa and Minnesota, then we have to be logging that's very difficult," he said.
He says some propane pipelines could shut down completely, threatening both the harvest and home heating.
Both Rippentrop and Bodensteiner say something needs to be done soon.
Rippentrop says if the weather starts getting colder they may have to shut the supply to farmers down and focus on heating homes.
He's hoping state legislators work to prevent shortages like this one in the future.
