CHEHALIS, Wash. — For the second year, farmers are loading barley into rail cars at the Port of Chehalis via a portable conveyer they hope will be replaced by permanent silos and grain elevators.

The rigged-up conveyance, set up on a gravel lot next to a rail spur, brings barley to Great Western Malting Co. in Vancouver. It’s not a continuous operation. Rail cars are ordered three weeks in advance.

To grow, the project needs silos, allowing farmers to deliver and customers to take grains on their schedules.

“At some point, we really want to see some silos on that property,” said Mike Peroni, project manager for the Northwest Agriculture Business Center. “We’d really like to increase our production.”

The port is halfway between Seattle and Portland. Organizers say farmers are positioned to sell grains to distillers, brewers, bakers and others who want locally grown grain. The silos could also take incoming shipments of feed for dairies.

State lawmakers this year allocated $1.75 million for silos and elevators. Port CEO Randy Mueller said more engineering needs to be done to figure out how far the money will go.

“Construction costs are always inflating, and that’s continuing to be the case here, though not too terribly bad,” he said.

Mueller said the port will seek other funding. “We’re in a time period where there is a lot of grant money out there,” he said. “To have something next year is perfectly doable.”

To operate the silos, farmers formed the Southwest Washington Growers Cooperative. “We’ll get something built by next year,” predicts Lewis County farmer Dave Fenn, the cooperative’s first president.

This year, cooperative farmers grew winter barley on 280 acres, more than double last year’s acreage. Per-acre yields were down. Fenn attributed it to a combination of pests, weeds and weather.

“We came up a little short of what we wanted to ship. But that’s farming,” he said.

The southwest Washington grains project was born after a vegetable processor withdrew its contracts with farmers in the region.

Grays Harbor farmer Larry Willis, who once grew corn and peas, said his fields are wet for winter barley, but he is trying spring barley to rotate in with wheat he grows for a dairy.

His crop, he said, “looks good, no doubt about it.” As for the finances, “it doesn’t look any more rosy than the wheat. It looks comparable,” he said.