# Farmers Hope For River System Improvements

> Midwest farm groups say the aging U.S. river lock system, built in the 1930s, is slowing grain exports and adds one to two cents per bushel in costs for corn shipments. Illinois moves more than 650 million bushels of corn on the river system annually, and groups hope for lock upgrades in recently passed legislation.

- Date: 2019-10-30 · published 2019-10-30T12:00:00.000Z
- Category: logistics · region US · magnitude low
- Page: https://feedsoft.ai/events/56465-farmers-hope-for-river-system-improvements
- Commodities: [Corn](https://feedsoft.ai/c/CORN.md), [Soybeans](https://feedsoft.ai/c/SOY.md), [Barge Freight (St. Louis)](https://feedsoft.ai/c/BARGE.md)

## Why it matters

Lock bottlenecks raise corn and soybean transport costs and reduce competitiveness in export markets. Planned upgrades would ease logistics costs over the long term but are not an immediate price driver.

## Read by commodity

- SOY: bullish ▲
- CORN: bullish ▲
- BARGE: bullish ▲

## Similar past events

| Commodity | Date | Event | 5-day % | 20-day % |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CORN | 2016-11-01 | [River Infrastructure a Major Concern for Corn Farmers - Southeast AgNET](https://feedsoft.ai/events/73764-river-infrastructure-a-major-concern-for-corn-farmers-southeast-agnet.md) | +1.9% | -4.3% |
| CORN | 2019-04-25 | [Floods stall fertilizer shipments in latest blow to U.S. farmers](https://feedsoft.ai/events/59484-floods-stall-fertilizer-shipments-in-latest-blow-to-u-s-farmers.md) | +0.4% | +6.2% |
| CORN | 2017-05-08 | [US Rivers Under Siege](https://feedsoft.ai/events/70891-us-rivers-under-siege.md) | +1.5% | +2.5% |
| CORN | 2020-02-13 | [A Deeper Mississippi River Will Improve the Economics of Soybean Exports](https://feedsoft.ai/events/54493-a-deeper-mississippi-river-will-improve-the-economics-of-soybean-exports.md) | +1.0% | +1.3% |
| CORN | 2022-10-12 | [Possible Rail Strike Complicates Northern Plains Grain Movement \| Red River Farm Network](https://feedsoft.ai/events/39149-possible-rail-strike-complicates-northern-plains-grain-movement-red-river-farm.md) | +1.9% | -1.0% |
| SOY | 2020-09-08 | [Investments in Mississippi River Dredging Improve Export Efficiency — Louisiana Farm Bureau News](https://feedsoft.ai/events/51003-investments-in-mississippi-river-dredging-improve-export-efficiency-louisiana.md) | +5.1% | +5.4% |
| SOY | 2017-05-08 | [US Rivers Under Siege](https://feedsoft.ai/events/70891-us-rivers-under-siege.md) | -0.9% | -4.3% |
| SOY | 2018-11-26 | [Report: River dredging will benefit farmers - Brownfield Ag News](https://feedsoft.ai/events/61939-report-river-dredging-will-benefit-farmers-brownfield-ag-news.md) | +1.6% | +0.3% |

## Sources

- ipm.org: https://www.ipm.org/show/eartheats/2019-10-30/farmers-hope-river-system-improvements

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Data from Feedsoft AI (https://feedsoft.ai/). For information only; not investment advice.