After severe drought, the bumper crops of 2013 bring their own difficulties. They are causing severe bottlenecks in the transportation and logistical systems of the U.S. Elevators do not know how they are going to deliver the December deliveries. Barges and hopper cars are overbooked. The rail system is already under stress with the new demand of oil deliveries, and terminals are backlogged. In 2013 Farmers are expected to see net cash receipts from grain crops fall 3% according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Because of delays in the beginning of the corn season, the harvest had to be completed in just 9 weeks causing a huge influx of corn in a short period of time into the transportation system. The drought last year caused many truckers to leave the business to transport for other industries and empty rail cars are hard to find. Barge traffic is being slowed by the weather as well, forcing some northern stretches of many Midwest rivers to close because of freezing. Trains that normally make three trips to the terminals in the Pacific Northwest per month are only able to make two causing freight costs to go up. What was $500 in December is now$1,300. Stalled delays of repairs at one of the nation’s busiest lock systems at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers caused a three day delay and pushed shipping costs to a five-year high. Delays at the country’s largest grain port complex at New Orleans are running 10 days behind – the worst in four years. These conditions may call for elevators to store grain on the ground through the winter causing rot and losses for the owners.
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