Drought and low river levels are crippling barge traffic and hurting grain exports

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."According to the National Weather Service, most of the upper Mississippi River Basin is between abnormally dry and severe drought conditions.

“It’s never been this bad in my career,” said Butler Miller with St. Louis-based barge company Robert B. Miller and Associates. “The last time the river levels were this low was in the 1980s. Rain is really the only thing that will fix it. You can dredge and that helps things along a little bit.”

Meteorologists predict that lower Mississippi River levels will remain at where they currently stand through the end of the month. Even if it rains, though, rivers will be the last place to see the benefits of the moisture.

“The fields are so dry, they will soak up a lot of water before it starts feeding the creeks, streams and rivers,” Miller said. “We need a lot of steady rain.”

Water is critical to support life. Whether it’s a corn, wheat, soy, or any other kind of crop, they don't do well without rain. Rain nourishes the crops directly, but rain also fills the reservoirs used for irrigation. People don't do well without potable water either.
All over Missouri, ponds are at much lower levels than they normally are. Our three wet-weather creeks that run across our 39 acres have been dry most of the summer and are still bone dry today. This affects everything. We just filled our 7-ton grain bin with pig feed, and that feed was almost $100 more per ton then it was 5 months ago. I’ve said this before, the hay crop, that is used to feed the animals through the winter has been drastically reduced this summer as well. . . . . and I’ve been told to expect a harder winter than normal.