Water levels on the Mississippi River have been low since 2022, restricting barge traffic and bottlenecking trade on one of the busiest navigation channels in the country. Current water levels are lower than they have been in many of the past five years.
“A lot of the Midwest recently has received a pretty substantial amount of rainfall over the last week or two,” says Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition. “You’re seeing water levels elevate as a result of that. The question moving forward is, will that just be kind of a temporary blip, and then we’ll just be kind of back down to where we were? And so that’s something that we’re going to continue to monitor.”
Steenhoek says the next few months are the critical time of the year for ag traffic on the Mississippi and again, there is concern.
“October, November, December, that’s kind of game time when it comes to U.S. soybean and grain exports, particularly on the river. And so, you want to have that river with a sufficient amount of water in it so that barge transportation won’t be encumbered. So again, something we’re going to be monitoring as the weeks proceed.”
He adds that enhanced dredging of the river is an expensive option but one which may have to be considered if these kinds of low-water events persist.
Source: NAFB News Service
