This article has been reprinted from the Dec. 5 USDA Grain Transportation Report.
For the week ending November 30, 1.02 million tons of grain passed through the locks of the Mississippi River and major tributaries.
This quantity surpassed last week’s total as the highest for weekly volume in 2019 and was 52 percent higher than the same week last year.
Shipments originating from the upper Mississippi River sent before the river closed may still be in transit, but the upper Mississippi is now closed to new shipments for the winter.
This week (beginning December 1) is likely to be the last week that shipping will be available in the mid-Mississippi, a stretch of the river passing through Davenport, IA, before that section of the river is also closed for the winter (see figure 9 in this report for a map of these locations).
Locks 24 and 25, on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis, will close from December 15 through March 31, 2020.
As usual, the Illinois, Ohio, and Arkansas (MKARNS) Rivers will remain open throughout the winter, as will portions of the Mississippi in St. Louis and further south.