(Reuters) — A blast of winter weather disrupted grain and livestock movement in parts of the U.S. Midwest on Thursday as snowy roads slowed truck deliveries of hogs, corn and other commodities and icy rivers impeded barge shipments of grain bound for export markets.
Snow was falling on much of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio on Thursday as the storm, which hit the farm belt over the New Year’s holiday, veered toward the northeastern United States.
Plunging temperatures in the coming days could prolong the transportation headaches, particularly on the icy Illinois River, where shippers have been working to keep a navigable channel open.
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“We’re making ice 24 hours a day at these temperatures and it’s only going to get worse with the lows forecast to be way below zero next week,” said a barge broker.
“If there weren’t all the boat traffic running up and down the Illinois, I don’t think it would be navigable right now,” he added.
The U.S. Coast Guard has already restricted navigation to one-way traffic from Illinois River mile marker 169 to 179 near Peoria, Illinois, because ice has narrowed the shipping channel, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
No other ice-related restrictions were currently in place on the Illinois River, which typically remains open to barge traffic through the winter months.
Northern sections of the Mississippi River are already closed for the season so export terminals along the Gulf Coast often rely heavily on grain shipments from Illinois and Ohio river elevators during the winter.
Some 60 percent of all U.S. corn, soybean and wheat exports exit the country via the U.S. Gulf Coast. Gulf exporters rely on barge shipments via the Mississippi River and its tributaries to supply the bulk of their exportable grain.
Snow- and ice-covered highways and impassable rural roads limited grain movement from Midwest farms to elevators and processors on Thursday, though grain prices were not affected, grain merchants said.
Cash hog brokers in the eastern Corn Belt said cold weather and blowing snow did not halt hog deliveries to slaughter houses but that the trips were taking longer than normal due to hazardous road conditions.
“We’ve not experienced any weather-related delays in production at our plants and are able to fulfill our customers’ supply needs,” said Worth Sparkman, spokesman for Tyson Foods , the top U.S. meat processor.
