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USB officer says great to see dredging project come to light

The treasurer of the United Soybean Board says it’s great to see the commitment of soybean farmers come to light as a dredging project in the lower Mississippi River is about to start. Meagan Kaiser, who grows corn and soybeans in Northwest Missouri, says the deepening of the river channel is something members of the USB invested in directly…

“No one farmer could make this kind of impact but when we work together we can have a huge change to our national infrastructure.”

The dredging will create an estimated $461-Million-dollar benefit for soybean growers in more than 30 states, “That’s 13-cents per bushel right off of our freight costs and so it’s pretty powerful to see that we’ve really gotten the wheels turning.”

The USB allocated $2-Million dollars to help offset some of the planning and research costs of deepening the channel from 45 feet to 50 feet which is expected to be done about a year from now in a 150-mile section. The overall cost of the project – over four or five years – is an estimated $245 million dollars.