Out of sight, out of mind
Tuesday, Oct 2, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* When city folks see rain, their grass gets greener, maybe their trees spruce up a bit and they think the drought problem is over. Not in the least…
Illinois has more than 1,000 miles of inland waterways, which at different points link to the Mississippi River. In 2010, according to Waterways Council Inc., more than 108 million tons of commodities worth almost $20.4 billion — mostly grain and coal — moved on the state’s waterways. The commodities were shipped to 20 states, with Louisiana receiving the most — more than 37.5 million tons of commodities, mostly grain. Much of that is exported through the Gulf of Mexico.
“It’s very much under the radar screen for most people,” said Doug Whitley, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “I happen to sit on the Chicago River, and I look right down, and I see barge traffic every day. I see sand barges coming through, scrap-metal barges, stone. I don’t see grain here, but Downstate — it’s huge.”
For every one-inch loss of water, a barge must decrease its load by 17 tons of cargo, according to the American Waterways Operators, a trade association based in Arlington, Va.
This year, the river isn’t low by inches. It’s down by feet.
“We’ve been light loading barges,” said Dennis Wilmsmeyer, executive director of America’s Central Port and president of the Inland Rivers, Ports and Terminals trade group. “Barges aren’t as full, they don’t sink as much into water, and that’s allowing us to continue to operate.”
* I’ve told you about my good friend Rob Werden, a farmer in northern Madison County. Rob harvested corn over the weekend and he posted this pic on his Twitter feed yesterday…
Ugh.
Rob told me that one of the fields he farms averaged 4.6 bushels of corn per acre. Unreal.
- springfield native - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 1:29 pm:
Dumb question - When they calculate the bushels, does it include the husks or just the kernels?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 1:36 pm:
Light barges are a real problem. If you have to move grain by truck or rail, the costs go through the roof and ripple though the food chain.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 1:41 pm:
Just the kernels.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 1:41 pm:
In eastern Sangamon county, the few farmer friends I’ve talked with did better than they expected; nothing to writ ehome about but they made over the threshold for claiming against the crop insurance and expect to be around break even for the year …
- Pretty scary - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 1:52 pm:
I’m a city boy and I don’t know about farming. But I’m thinking a couple years of drought like they had in the former Soviet Union in the 70s and 80s could lead to a real mess. Civilizations have gone kaput because of climate change.
- Dirty Red - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 2:05 pm:
Meanwhile, western Iowa looks at these pictures and drools.
Love that there is a drought post not long after the governor returns from Brazil.
- way south of chicago - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 2:08 pm:
pretty similar to what we are seeing over here on the east side of southern illinois…..hope Rob is insured well and that his bean crop is fair….
- frmrILSIP - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 2:55 pm:
I just got back from my family farm west of Macomb. The highest yield field was about 180 bushels per acre and the lowest was around 50. Not good, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 3:43 pm:
===Love that there is a drought post not long after the governor returns from Brazil.===
The Brazilians could teach us quite a bit about using an otherwise useless but hardy plant to make fuel. Instead, we take food and make it into fuel. Only in America does this make sense and this year the world will pay the price for this folly.
I wonder if anyone from ADM was on the Governor’s trip?
- Responsa - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 3:49 pm:
For anybody who might like to see a bit of what it takes for a family to bring in a corn crop, this is a terrific slide show. In 28 professional quality slides it captures a just competed dawn to dusk harvesting operation on a farm in Iowa. Some of the photos are absolutely beautiful.
http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/corn/2012-corn-harvest-day-life
- western illinois - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 3:50 pm:
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
And without TS Isaac we would really be in bad shape. He didnt do much for the farmers but saved the trees
if this becomes long term and only ameliorated by Tropical Storms we wont be doing much agriculture in North America anymore.
We have had droughts that lasted centuries before
- Excessively Rabid - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 5:01 pm:
Got 117 bu/a corn in southern Livingston, dried down to 109, and thought it was a miracle. It looked terrible in the field. Friend a mile away got 80 and his looked much better before harvest. One never do know. With the high prices, it was close to an average year for me - at least no crop insurance. As the Cubs (and now Sox) fans say, wait till next year.
- TimB - Tuesday, Oct 2, 12 @ 7:01 pm:
Thousands of acres in Illinois were simply disced or chopped down with no effort made to harvest. There was no grain at all in those fields. Lots of 20-60 bushel corn in Shelby county fields where 2 years ago 200 bu/a was the norm.
- hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Oct 3, 12 @ 1:13 am:
@47th Ward
“Instead, we take food and make it into fuel.”
Huh? Brazil takes sugar and turns it into fuel. That’s changing food into fuel, too. And it’s not like our corn crop gets used for ethanol and nothing else. The leftover ethanol waste gets used in other corn products like animal feed which helps us produce more food.
- the Patriot - Wednesday, Oct 3, 12 @ 8:22 am:
Last time I checked, it was pretty hard to grow sugarcane in the midwest.
The spin off economic effect to local farming towns is devastaing. Farm hands who get 1/2 of their yearly income in harvest get are laid off. Truck driving companies who count on harvest as construction slows get shut down. Fuel and service companies that count on business going into winter are empty. Don’t forget it is not just the farmers. Lots of people with no insurance get killed by this.
Also, beef farmers have not pasture and hay costs are through the roof. cattle farmers don’t get insurance to many small operators may lose their farms.