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Propane industry prepared to avoid 2019 repeat

The propane industry has taken steps to prevent regional shortages like the ones that occurred during the 2019 harvest season.

Michael Newland is with the Propane Education and Research Council. He says, “It was a distribution bottleneck and we have plenty of gas, but in some areas of the country, it was a little challenging getting it where it needed to be on the right day or maybe the right hour.”

Newland tells Brownfield back in 2019, a lot of corn was planted late and harvested wet, creating demand for fuel to dry grain all at the same time.  Newland says the industry then created a tool that allows them to better predict where propane will be needed and when based on crop production from USDA data. “What that does for our industry now is gives us an advanced notice, so as soon as the corn goes in the ground, we can start comparing planting dates to previous planting dates. That’s the first indicator of how that crop should mature, but then we track the weather. We track rainfall.”

Newland says knowing what to expect from the crop helps them get ahead of the demand for propane. “It gives us from a logistics standpoint an advanced look, gives our industry a little bit of an advanced warning of, you know, if we’ve got an area that we know is going to be a challenge, it gives everybody a chance to get extra transports into that area.”

Newland says this, along with additional distribution and on-farm storage capacity are helping ensure customers have adequate propane exactly when they need it.

Newland spoke to Brownfield during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention in Kansas City.

AUDIO: Michael Newland from the Propane Education and Research Council discusses propane including how the industry took steps to avoid regional shortages like they experienced in 2019 with Brownfield’s Larry Lee