Thousands of farmers from Ohio and surrounding states take a break from harvest this week to take in the Farm Science Review near London, Ohio. But, there's growing worry that rail and river transportation systems will be severely tested by this fall's harvest.
Ohio State University Agricultural economist Matt Roberts says rail and barge transportation systems will be strained again this year getting corn and soybeans to international markets.
At the Farm Science Review, Roberts says, "Our transportation system, our river transportation system is antiquated. Our barges, generally 20 to 25 years old. We lost alot of barges last year to Hurricane Katrina. What this adds up to is it increases the costs of moving our agricultural production down the river, down to New Orleans, that then we export to the rest of the world." And Roberts adds those transport bottlenecks will add costs and make U-S farm products less competitive in world markets.