2020 Fall Farm Outlook

2020 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS October 28, 2020 PAGE 19 35% of the total Ag tonnage received in Louisiana each year, and this year barge traffic on the Illinois is closed from July 1 thru October 31. Corn, soybeans and animal feed, along with ethanol, petroleum, and building materials like cement, stone, sand and lime halted on July 1st when the five locks closed for business. Year 2020 is slated to be the biggest Ag products export year that the U.S. has ever experienced, and the Illinois River producers have had delayed access to the international markets. China not only increased its purchase of soybeans this year, but in an unusual move has also ordered a significant amount of feed corn due to significant flooding in their Ag production areas in late 2019. While the U.S. has been getting drier, China has been getting wetter. China has already purchased 77% of its 2020 U.S. grain quota, fulfilling its pledge made in recent trade negotiations with the Trump administration. The result of China's binge buying is that grain prices are up significantly, but Central Illinois' basis is tanked. Some elevators have even been forced to store soybeans on the ground awaiting the opening of the river passage. Trucking and train cars have been used, but have increased the cost of shipping, and the full harvest flow of central Illinois grain is backed up waiting for the port at Havana to reopen to barge traffic. In 2019, 406,000 tons of grain flowed through the southern LaGrange locks at Beardstown from January 1 through June 30, and this year that amount has more than doubled to 999,000 tons hurriedly preparing for the lock closure. The original plan, barring extensive flooding, was for the locks to reopen on October 15, 2020. But the construction process took a little more time than expected and all locks are now scheduled to reopen by October 31. [LaGrange lock and dam at Beardstown. Image from Innovative Contracting and Engineering] CONTINUE X