About 60% of U.S. grain exports are taken by barge down the Mississippi to New Orleans
Barges float in the Mississippi River as a portion of the riverbed is exposed, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, in St. Louis. A long stretch of hot, dry weather has left the Mississippi River so low that barge companies are reducing their loads just as Midwest farmers are preparing to harvest their crops and send tons of corn and soybeans downriver to the Gulf of Mexico.
“We haven’t had rain here for several weeks so our crop size is shrinking,” Peterson said. “Unfortunately, that has taken care of part of the issue.” to New Orleans, where the corn, soybeans and wheat is stored and ultimately transferred to other ships. It’s usually an inexpensive, efficient way to transport crops, as a typical group of 15 barges lashed together carries as much cargo as about 1,000 trucks.
North of St. Louis, a series of locks and dams guarantees a 9-foot-deep channel as far north as Minneapolis-St. Paul. But that’s not the case in the lower Mississippi. A narrowed shipping lane also means barges from different companies must squeeze into limited space, forcing backups and delays. “After the flood came through this spring it was a touchy situation,” Heinold said. “In May and June we were jumping very quickly from place to place to try to get pilot channels open as the water was dropping.”
The Midwest grows most of the nation’s corn and soybeans. The percentage rated good to excellent nationwide was a little more than 50%, the worst rating in more than a decade.Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said many Midwest farmers have multiple transport options, among them trucking and shipment by train for use by nearby ethanol and biodiesel plants and for processing into animal feed. But for grain exported from the U.S.
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