US Mississippi River Not Efficient for Movement of Ag Goods

Mike LeFever, a Colorado corn grower and a member of the US Grains Council Advisory Committee. Discusses current priorities, including improving river access for corn exports.

“Right now, the things that are very important to that should be important to all, including Colorado, is our river system, because we got the best river system in the world, even though it needs some some work done to the locks and stuff, because a lot of the locks are only 660 foot. They need to be 1200 because that's the size of our tugs. And so once we get down there, then you're talking about the Panama Canal. They have opened up a new one. But people don't realize that there is 111 million metric tons of corn that go through that canal. That's why we can ship corn cheaper than anybody else in the world. And so they might pay a little bit more for our corn at our base, but with the transportation by time it arrives, they're still at a bargain.”

Lefever says that usgc is working to secure infrastructure upgrades for aging locks and dams to strengthen export capacity.

“If you look at our tugs, are 600 foot long, or we used to be 600 foot long. Now they're 1200 so if you can imagine this, that they got to break that that tug up and anchor it in the river. Take half of it through the canal. Take it through their side. Anchor in the river. The tug has to go back through the canal, pick up the other half of it, go back through the canal, put them back together. And do that 29 times, going down to Mississippi. Not efficient at all. So they get the 1200 ones, they cut that in half.”

Lefever, US Grains Council advisory board member.