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The ripening corn and soybean fields stretch for miles in every direction from Dennis Wentworth’s farm in Downs, Illinois.

The delays have stretched dangerously close to grain harvesting season, when barges need to carry wheat, soybeans and corn from throughout the Midwest down to the Gulf Coast for export.

The company posted a 12 percent drop in fiscal fourth- quarter profit as its trading and processing business continued to feel the effects of drought in the U.S. and a shortage of railcars.

Since farmers’ profits are dropping this year alongside crop prices, bridge-infrastructure needs have come into sharper focus.

Despite the government shutdown, proponents of legislation authorizing new waterway projects and improvements on the existing lock and dam system, believe the bill could pass.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple opened a federal hearing in Fargo about rail service delays in the upper Plains by reading a letter from a grain elevator that said Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. was 525 cars behind in its service.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says farmers have been “tremendously patient” about rail delays, “but that patience is wearing thin.”

Minnesota officials and propane suppliers say they’re better prepared to avoid repeating the shortages that hit much of the Midwest last winter.

Gov. Mark Dayton is urging the federal government to step in on railroad delays hitting Minnesota grain farmers.

North Dakota’s congressional delegation is pressing Canadian Pacific Railway to provide details of its backlog of grain shipments, saying farmers need detailed information with fall harvest fast approaching.