Canada's two main railways have exceeded their western grain revenue entitlements for the past crop year, meaning the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) will be getting over $9 million in funding.

According to the Canada Transportation Agency, Canadian National (CN) Railway's revenue came in almost $7 million above its entitlement, while Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) exceeded the limit by just over $2 million.

CN and CP have 30 days to pay this amount to the WGRF in addition to a five per cent penalty.

WGRF board of directors chair David Sefton says this is a significant amount of funding, but it's not money they count on.

"We always hope the railways stay under the revenue cap, we never want to see these dollars coming to Western Grains Research Foundation because that means farmers of Western Canada have been overcharged for their rail transportation, and as farmers, that's not a good thing," he says.

Sefton says the money will help fund work like planting breeding, end-use projects, and agronomic research.

In the 2014-2015 crop year, over 40 million tonnes of western grain were moved by rail, which is 7.4 per cent higher than last year.