Early harvest leads to trucking back up at the Mississippi

The extremely dry conditions during the growing season have caused both corn and soybeans to be ready for harvest at the same time, impacting the ability of Mississippi River barges in Iowa to keep up with the quick pace, putting a strain on truckers who have to wait in line to unload crops.

“All the semis are lined up down at the river,” farmer Bill Skayhill told Radio Iowa, saying that a trucker who moves his crops has faced two-hour waits to unload.  

The harvests of corn and beans generally have enough time between them to not cause such a strain on the transport system.

Now truckers servicing the farms are caught up in the process of waiting to get their truckloads of crops into the system.

“Hopefully he’ll be able to get more in there,” Skayhill said.

The problem is on the land side, not the river. The barge traffic is not affected by low water levels, because a system of locks and dams allows officials to control water depth.