Barges are travelling lighter to ensure they can float
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The Mississippi River’s low water levels are affecting the U.S. ag sector.
The river’s water levels at Vicksburg, Miss., for example, was around 4ft on Oct. 14, National Weather Service data says.
As of Oct. 20, the water level is around 1.3ft.
The low water levels mean barges aren’t carrying high volumes of goods, including ag products, to ensure the vessels can still travel on the river.
This also translates to higher freight rates.
A normal rate is about 70 cents per bushel, but that’s increased significantly, said Alan Knobloch, a grain merchandiser with Akron Services.
“Right now, barge freight is trading at 2,000 percent of tariff. So that is $2.80 a bushel to get a bushel of beans from Creve Coeur, Illinois down to the New Orleans Gulf,” he told CIProud.com.
These higher rates won’t affect consumers but “it’s more of a situation, a farm situation, where the farmer is not receiving as much for his product,” Knobloch added.
And if barges aren’t carrying as much grain as they can, this leads to further challenges.
Grain elevators will remain close to full and therefore may not accept delivery, said Hunter Bitam, an extension economist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“There’s only so much storage at elevators, only so much space,” he told KASU.org. “Elevators will turn farmers away when they don’t have anywhere to put it.”
The low water levels are even causing issues for local freshwater supplies.
The flow of the Mississippi River usually prevents saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico from entering the river. But because the levels are low, some has crept in.
To prevent saltwater from getting farther upstream, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began constructing an underwater sill in Myrtle Grove, La., on Oct. 11.
Current weather forecasts show even lower water levels in the future.
If these forecasts hold, the National Weather Service expects “water levels to drop even lower than they did in 2012, 2000 and 1988 – other years when water levels his unusually low levels, NASA said.