WATERVILLE, Wash. — Paul Katovich opened a large drawer in a filing cabinet in his office at HighLine Grain Growers headquarters in Waterville, Wash., one July afternoon.

It was stuffed full of past studies of rail systems and dams.

“That’s enough,” Katovich said of the full drawer. “We don’t need to spend more money studying things we already know the answer to.”

Katovich questions the “repetitive nature” of studying the lower Snake River dams.

“It leads you to believe there is some other nefarious force behind it,” he said, likening it to a conversation with a toddler about why they should brush their teeth at night.

“We don’t need to have the conversation with our toddler every night,” he said. “We determine what the answer is, and then we move on. And the toddler accepts this. We’re not seeing that behavior when it comes to the lower Snake River dams. There’s a reason for that. And that’s what the conversation should be about: What’s behind this, and why? Where are we going with this conversation?
“The whole concept that you can take away the dams, remove the baseload power that those create, change fundamentally the environment on the river that has now been stable for more than seven decades, and then expect something different to somehow miraculously get better – even those who think that, it should give them pause: ‘Wait a second, there are a whole lot of problems with this,’” he said. “That’s why I think there’s something else behind it.”

‘It’s just our turn’

As CEO of HighLine Grain Growers, Katovich is uniquely positioned to advocate for farmers.

The company formed in April 2018, the merger of five local grain companies — Central Washington Grain Growers, Odessa Union Warehouse Co., Reardan Grain Growers, Davenport Union Warehouse Co. and Almira Farmers Warehouse Co. Ltd.

Katovich joined Central Washington Grain Growers in 2002, became its CEO in 2016, and has been HighLine’s CEO since the merger.

The company has nearly 3,000 farmer-members in more than 40 locations in eight counties, running along Washington’s State Highway 2 from Wenatchee to Spokane.

The grower groups wanted to evolve, managing grain handling, storage, logistics and marketing for current and future farmers, Katovich said of the merger.

“These companies are built around the concept that we are stewards of a platform,” he said. “It’s not ours, it’s just our turn.”

HighLine advocates for farmers on many issues, from dams to rail needs to supporting research into the rapid test replacement for the long-running, cumbersome falling number test for starch damage in wheat.

Co-ops are designed to do what individual farmers or farm families can’t do on their own, Katovich said. That means engaging in local, state, and national politics to represent rural America and agriculture, and show that the decisions made in Olympia and Washington D.C. affect farmers.

Federal and state decision makers and agencies are figuring out that the U.S. has done well when innovating and building new, but doesn’t do a great job of maintaining, renovating or upgrading, Katovich said.

Policy makers need “connectivity” to farmers, so they know who to call when they have questions, Katovich said.

“We spend a lot of time in that arena,” he said. “It’s paid dividends, not just for agriculture, but those that share our homes.”

Striking the balance is the calling card of HighLine, which Katovich called a “fiercely independent” cooperative.

“We’re not multi-state, we’re not national, we’re not global,” he said. “A lot of patrons would recognize many of us as employees on the street in different towns. You get a whole lot larger, and that just gets more difficult.”

At cost

The farmer’s largest concern is competitiveness on the domestic and global market.

“That’s beyond their scope,” Katovich said. “HighLine can engage in those conversations, but we’re at the origin of the transportation network.”

HighLine’s handling fee doesn’t even cover the cost of the employees dumping trucks, so the co-op needs other income streams to make it functional, and manage investment in rehabilitation or prospective growth. The company finds paths outside of its primary functions of handling, storing and shipping the crop, Katovich said.

“A lot of our income is coming from ancillary business income streams,” he said. “That’s by design. We’re trying to make it as cheap as possible; essentially, anyone that’s doing business with the cooperative is doing it at cost. That’s the point: We’re doing our part, but the transportation costs themselves, largely inflationary, ultimately the farmer’s paying the price.”

When wheat is under $5 per bushel in Douglas County, for example, “that’s unsustainable,” he said.

“Our prices are putting a lot of pressure on agriculture,” he said. “This is an uncomfortable time. We’re hopeful the wind shifts, but right now, we have a pretty good headwind … Growers are feeling it.”

A strong U.S. dollar and incoming policies under the Trump administration apply further pressure.

“We’re really concerned,” he said. “This is a hard time. Agriculture goes through these peaks and valleys, and the valleys seem to last a lot longer than the peaks do.”

Katovich hopes new administrations at the state and federal levels will recognize the situation and consider American agriculture as they make policy.

“I think it’s an easy story to tell that thriving economies are built on affordable energy and affordable food,” he said. “Let’s not destroy the baseline of vibrant economies with unintended consequences.”

‘A better way to be’

Katovich attended high school and college in Idaho. He had a good mix of friends from different backgrounds at the University of Idaho.

He got into grain trading because he enjoyed the rural environment and culture.

“(I) thought that would be a nice way to spend a career, trying to help those around you,” he said. “In rural environments, the people you’re seeing are people that you know. That’s not true in an urban environment. I’ve lived in both … Here in a rural environment, you tend to get to know people in a different way, and I just think that’s fundamentally a better way to be.”

Katovich lives in Waterville, where HighLine’s main office is located. The management team is spread out “on purpose,” so each town has staff on hand to help farmers who walk in the door, he said.

Natural leader

Katovich has a quiet intensity about him that can come across as intimidating. And yet he’s “super approachable,” said Jason Scrupps, chairman of the HighLine board of directors and an Odessa, Wash., dryland wheat farmer.

“We always jokingly say, ‘That is Paul’s happy face,’” Scrupps said with a chuckle. “But he’s super friendly and always willing to try to help someone out and do the right thing.”

Scrupps has known Katovich since 1992, when they were both in the same fraternity at the University of Idaho.

“He’s just a natural planner and leader, he’s never not been that way,” Scrupps said. “It all really starts from trying to treat people fairly and do the right thing. He always comes from a place of friendship and justice.”

“I don’t know if you can put a price tag on it,” Ben Adams, a HighLine board member, Douglas County wheat farmer west of Coulee City, Wash., and board member for the Washington Grain Commission, said of Katovich’s leadership and advocacy on behalf of the rail and river system for farmers in Olympia and Washington D.C.  “He is a passionate voice for us.”

Bucket list

Katovich’s “number-one bucket list item” as CEO is to see that the state-owned Palouse River and Coulee City (PCC) short-line rail system is fully rehabilitated.

Three branches serve Adams, Grant, Lincoln, Spokane and Whitman counties. About 20% to 25% of the state’s wheat crop ships on the system.

Having a truly balanced shipping platform of both rail and barge is “imperative” to the co-op’s patrons and in order to compete locally and globally, Katovich said.

“We really need to be — and are, currently — the Olympic athlete of transportation,” he said. “That’s largely because we have this nice balance between a robust, first-in-class river system and two significant Class 1 rail providers that go through our region. We have the best opportunity to be efficient.”

The Pacific Northwest doesn’t have the same crop density as the Midwest, so a short-line helps gather from large numbers of acres to hit today’s shuttle system’s preferences.

“One of the major impetuses behind HighLine is to support a shuttle system,” Katovich said. “These cooperatives that are left are largely doing the exact same thing for the exact same type of farm, just in a different county. We’re a patchwork quilt of support mechanisms for our multi-generational farm families.”

The Washington State Department of Transportation received a 2022 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant, the largest rural commitment that the federal government made for rail rehab and construction. It will go a long way towards addressing the worst conditions on all three PCC rail lines.

The project is slated to begin this spring, covering Four Lakes, Wash., to Davenport, Wash.

A 2024 CRISI grant covers the CW branch from Davenport to Wilbur, leaving one last stretch.
Katovich doesn’t foresee much disruption in funding with the change in presidential administrations. He pointed to broad support from legislators on both sides of the political aisle, noting it “really does ring all the bells for all the right reasons.”
“Great odds of seeing this happen in my career, getting all three of the PCC branches upgraded to something that is sustainable in the long run,” he said in August. “That probably gives the next generation an opportunity to focus on something else.”

The next generation

That’s something that comes up a lot when talking to Katovich, or about Katovich: The next generation.“The future of multigenerational farms is foremost on his mind,” Adams, the grain commissioner, said.

During annual or grower meetings, HighLine emphasizes that its workers try to be good stewards of a program created by previous generations of farmers.

“There were generations of people who came before us that built this platform and were thinking about us, even though they will never know us,” Katovich said. “To recognize that, and then to project it forward – how do we maintain a system that in many ways is at the end of its useful life? How do you extend that? How do you evolve to meet the demands of those that will follow us?”

That’s why HighLine works to allow growers to do their marketing and transportation at cost, he said.

“That was the design,” he said. “Those that came before us were contemplating exactly what we are attempting to be today, and to pass that torch on to those that think in a similar way, that’s the goal.”