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Closed locks not causing fertilizer shortages in Wisconsin yet

The President of the Wisconsin Agribusiness Association says shipping problems on the Mississippi River have not created a crisis for his members yet.  Tom Bressner tells Brownfield, “They are behind some on fertilizer, which they haven’t needed a big run on fertilizer yet just because they haven’t been able to get in the fields.”

Bressner says their members are concerned because the demand could all come at once before they can get enough product in stock. “Boy, when this thing does hit, it’s all going to hit and of course, it multiplies ten times when you figure not only are we a little behind on stockpiling product, but then you’ve got the labor issues, and you’ve got the CDL truck issues, and it’s just everything at once.”

Patrick Loch with the Army Corps of Engineers in St. Paul tells Brownfield that as of Friday, flooding is keeping the locks at Alma, Wisconsin closed and there are others. “The bigger impact is downstream. I’m looking right now and there are several locks in Illinois and Iowa that are closed and that’s going to kind of prevent additional tows from making that treck up north here.”

Loch says there hasn’t been much commercial traffic in the upper Mississippi River as many barges are trapped downstream below Rock Island, Illinois, but there are recreational watercraft operators braving the high waters.

Locks closed due to flooding include:

#4 at Alma, Wisconsin

#12 at Bellevue, Iowa

#13 at Fulton Illinois,

#16 at Muscatine, Iowa

#17 at New Boston, Illinois