USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service recently published a synopsis of a study conducted in cooperation with the University of Oregon.
The researchers studied the relationship between preferences for barge and rail transportation among Midwest corn shippers.
The analysis measured how a given shipper’s preference for each mode changed as the shipper’s distance to the waterway changed. Of movements originating near the Mississippi River network, nearly all barge shipments and about a quarter of rail ended in the Louisiana Gulf.
Preference for barge was found to be strongest for shippers closest to a waterway and fell to approximately zero for shippers beyond 175 miles from the waterway.
