U.S. Soybean Farmers Make Major Investments in Mississippi River and Port Infrastructure

Major infrastructure investments are being made on the Mississippi River and at the ports to keep farmers competitive in the export market.  

U.S. soybean farmers have led efforts to improve infrastructure by funding research on lock and dam upgrades, as well as dredging on the Mississippi River. 

"USB has put up the money for the research to do all this dredging since the farmers actually are willing to put money forward," says Garrett Marsh, United Soybean Board director and Louisiana farmer. "It kind of encouraged the Corps to step up their timeline, I guess."

Mike Steenhoek, executive director for the Soy Transportation Coalition, adds: "The United Soybean Board invested $2 million to help underwrite part of the cost of deepening this lower stretch of the Mississippi River from a minimum of 45' of water depth to 50'."

He says that deeper depth allows another 500,000 bu. of soybeans to be loaded for export.

"You can put more freight and, in our case, soybeans per vessel, from about 2.4 million bushels of soybeans to 2.9 million bushels of soybeans," he says.

That helps lower freight rates and adds to the value of the soybeans exported, according to Marsh. "With our $2 million investment, I think they’re getting a return of 13¢ a bushel because they can put more freight on a ship."

That adds up to a big annual benefit for soybean farmers, Steenhoek says.

"What our research calculated was that farmers would benefit from this cost savings because our supply chain is more efficient due to the deepening of the channel, which will result in farmers receiving $461 million of additional value annually," he says.

The dredging project is only two-thirds done, but is already returning benefits, says Micah Cormier with the Port of South Louisiana. "Last year, we actually saw a net increase in tonnage for our port for the first time in six years."

Steenhoek adds: "We have a 50' or greater channel from the Gulf of Mexico to about river mile 170, and eventually that will extend to river mile 232, and then the project will be completed."  

USB also funded research to help with the modernization of locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River. Marsh says, "In lock and dam 25, we’re helping with a lot of research to try to redo it because a lot of our locks and dams are deteriorating."

Steenhoek adds: "We've actually offered $1 million to the Army Corps of Engineers for one particular lock and dam improvement project north of St. Louis."

The port of South Louisiana has also underwritten some needed improvements. Cormier says, "I'm sitting on the global plex dock, and there's a crane that's sitting right behind me. These are brand new cranes within the last year; they've tripled the value that has been able to move in a much more efficient manner."