ANKENY, Iowa (RFD News) — Agriculture shipping groups are raising concerns about low water levels on the Mississippi River as harvest approaches.
Water levels on the river are currently lower than in recent years, continuing a trend that began in 2022 when barge traffic was restricted and bottlenecks began appearing.
Recent rainfall across the Midwest could help raise water levels, but Mike Steenhoek with the Soy Transportation Coalition said it remains unclear how long the improvement will last.
“A lot of the Midwest recently has received a pretty substantial amount of rainfall over the last, week or two. 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.”
With harvest approaching, Steenhoek said the next few months will be critical for agricultural traffic on the river.
“October, November, December, those that’s kind of game time when it comes to U.S. soybean and grain exports, particularly on the river. 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.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has worked to address changing water levels by dredging the river in recent years, but those projects are expensive.
