For the third year in a row, the Mississippi River is experiencing low water levels during harvest season. In the spring and early summer, precipitation and water levels were quite robust. Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, says once the calendar moved past mid-July, precipitation decline significantly, which caused a steady and dramatic decrease in water levels.
There was a brief rise in water levels near Memphis after Hurricane Helene, but once the surge of water passed through the system, those water levels quickly returned to where they were earlier. The draft is considered the distance between the waterline and the lowest part of the hull.“In certain areas of the river, we’re seeing several feet of draft reductions due to the low water,” Steenhoek says. “For each foot of draft reduction on the river, each barge carries 7,000 fewer bushels of soybeans, which is roughly 200 tons.”