Low River Levels Slow Soybean Traffic Toward The Gulf
Brpwnfield
An ag transportation specialist says low water conditions continue to impact the lower Mississippi River.
Mike Steenhoek is the executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition and says, “We have received some precipitation over the last couple of months that has helped take the edge off, but we still have barge restrictions that have been imposed due to low water conditions.”
He tells Brownfield it was surprising to see levels decrease through the fall after the region received large amounts of rain during the spring and summer.
“Then all of a sudden, the spigots really got turned off for a considerable period of time.”
Steenhoek says it’s resulted in fewer soybeans being moved toward the Gulf.
“When you have less water in the system, you have less water depth of course. As a result, you have to resort to loading less tonnage – in this case soybeans – per barge because you’re concerned about it scraping the bottom of the shipping channels.”
He says channel width has been a concern along the river south of Cairo, Illinois, comparing it to a four-lane highway narrowing down to only two lanes.