Hauling America’s Grain

At Watco, we’re proud to keep commodities moving, highlighting some of those in 2026 as we commemorate America250. Visible now across the Central and Southern Plains is one very prominent agricultural commodity: wheat.

Sunlit, windswept fields are displaying, as the song lyrics say, amber waves of grain. Other grains handled by Watco, like barley, might be golden and might sway in the wind. But wheat is the summer standout.

America’s top wheat-producing state is Kansas. And right now, the Kansas & Oklahoma (KO) and South Kansas and Oklahoma (SKOL) railroads are experiencing the anticipation just before harvest. Jason Anderson, who handles sales for both railroads, called it “the calm before the storm.”

KO Senior Trainmaster Luke Lohrmeyer is ready for the storm. “We have cars in place at every elevator on the KO that plans on loading cars. As elevators take in grain, they’ll start loading cars, and we’ll be ready to start pulling them.”

Farmers will typically cut wheat and take it to small, local co-ops dotted throughout Kansas or to large, industrial grain terminals. These receiving houses accept, weigh, grade, and store wheat that will be railed to various locations.

While much of the wheat on the KO and SKOL is eventually exported by rail to Mexico, about half remains in the U.S. The bulk of it is high-protein, hard red winter wheat used in sandwich bread, yeast rolls, flat breads, tortillas, and Asian-style noodles.

“That’s what’s happening with your good, high-protein wheat that you’re pulling off the KO that goes into Wichita,” said Lohrmeyer. “Most of your grain that’s going to a mill in Wichita is getting crushed and is out feeding America.”

As for the SKOL, it, too, is collecting wheat locally and transferring it to major railroads for long-distance transport. “Many of the ag producers we serve are in southeast Kansas,” said SKOL General Manager Jerry Waun. “After interchange with Class I railroads, a lot of the wheat we move will go to regional or national flour mills and food processors.”

These scenarios are essentially repeated to some extent at 15 additional Watco rail operations across 11 states.

In 2025, Watco moved 42,549 carloads of wheat. Using standard covered hoppers at about 3,500 bushels per car, that’s over 6.2 billion loaves of bread – about 18 loaves per person in the United States. Including all types of other grains, Watco moved 149,907 carloads in 2025.

Behind the various statistics is this constant: Watco railroads carrying grain across America. As the country marks and moves past the 250-year mark, we’ll continue taking its grain from wherever it’s grown to
wherever it’s used.