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MN soybean director on river and trucking needs

An American Soybean Association director from Minnesota says transportation is a big deal to soybean growers and improvements are needed.

Chris Hill, a fifth-generation farmer (in Brewster, MN) who grows corn, soybeans and wheat and runs a small warehouse elevator and trucking operation, says river improvements are priority ONE, “Getting the lower Mississippi River dredged deeper so that they can allow the larger ships to come up the river, so we don’t have to transload beans and other products from one ship to another.”

Hill told Brownfield on the ASA stage at Commodity Classic that deepening the river would add 13-cents a bushel to farmers’ pockets.

Hill says they also want to add another axle and more weight to trucks to haul more grain, “There’s been studies done that show adding another axle actually helps making the stopping distance shorter. So, adding the extra axle and putting more weight on the truck, you can stop the things better.”

Hill says that also means the government should spend more money repairing roads and bridges to hold that extra weight.