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Hoosier farmers: industry needs reliable locks and dams

An Indiana farmer says the agriculture industry needs reliable locks and dams.

Herb Ringel farms corn and soybeans in Wabash County and serves as vice president of the Indiana Corn Growers Association.

“We export half our soybeans and we export a lot of our corn,” he says. “To get these to foreign countries we have to get them to a port. The easiest port for us to get to is down the Ohio River, to the Mississippi, and down to the Gulf.”

Audio: Herb Ringel, Indiana Corn Growers Association 

Ringel tells Brownfield waterways “are the lifeline of moving products to the gulf” much more than trucks or rail.

Shelby County farmer and Indiana Soybean Alliance board director Phil Ramsey says reliable locks and dams are vital to the economy.

“It’s interesting seeing the infrastructure that we have to move the barges down the river and how extremely important it is to keep them operational and current,” he says. “The lack of maintenance or the money to upgrade them to larger locks for bigger tows is a problem.”

Audio: Phil Ramsey, Indiana Soybean Alliance

More than 150 people took part in the Ohio River Lock and Dam tour put on by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and the Indiana Soybean Alliance in Louisville.