Now, as some stretches of the river remain closed to barge navigation and others are running at decreased capacity, corn is starting to pile up where this year's harvest has already begun.
"The main issue over here is the low river," says University of Arkansas Extension agriculture agent Robert Goodson. "As long as the Mississippi River stays low, storage may be an issue."
Corn yields are lower this year because of the drought. But, Arkansas farmers planted almost 20% more corn this year, there's still a lot of grain coming out of the field. Add to it that sorghum harvest has begun as well and it's creating an even greater problem.
"It's taxing the storage capacity of the elevators," says University of Arkansas agriculture specialist Scott Stiles. "Grain sorghum harvest is going strong as well and also competing for storage space. Sorghum acreage increased this year too, and the yields are good."
The drought's taken river levels lower than they've been in as long as 60 years, says American Farm Bureau Federation economist Veronica Nigh, and without any relief soon, they could reach the lowest levels since 1940, when they were the lowest ever. In terms of commerce alone, it's huge; Nigh says $180 billion in cargo traverses the Mississippi every year, including almost 2/3 of U.S. corn and 1/2 of soybeans destined for the export market. Then, heading north, the river moves a lot of fertilizer, coal and fuel.
And right now, sources in the river transportation industry say barges are lining up by the dozen at points of entry into the Mississippi; that is causing delays, for sure, but thus far, industry leaders say they should be able to keep up.
"Delivering throughout the Mississippi River system is slow in all areas," says G. Stephen Holcomb, vice president for investor relations with Kirby Corporation, one of the nation's largest inland waterway transportation companies. "We're still so far able to make our deliveries."
Though some sources say the low water levels mean barges can only carry up to 75% of their normal cargo, Holcomb says right now that tank barges, for example, have to trim back only 6 inches of total tank depth. "The normal depth of one of our tank barges is 9 feet, 6 inches and we're loading to 9 feet," he says.
Ironically, last year's ample rainfall in the northern half of the Mississippi River valley has contributed to this year's drought-driven logjam. The rain last year pushed more sediment than usual in the river channel, Nigh says, meaning that despite dredging -- like that going on around St. Louis, Missouri, this week, says Holcomb -- a bad problem is being made worse.
