Page 22 2026 Spring Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2026 • Lower prices at local elevators • Wider basis levels • Higher storage costs when grain can’t move quickly How does this affect Logan County farmers and its residences? It’s a simple cause and effect explanation of how higher transportation costs ultimately affect Logan County farmers, tied directly to what happens when grain must shift away from Mississippi River barge traffic. Although farmers truck grain to nearby elevators, those elevators price grain based on downstream transportation costs. When shipping to the Gulf becomes more expensive, that is passed upstream to inland producers like those in Logan County. This is particularly challenging during harvest, when farmers rely on timely grain movement to generate operating cash. In short, higher transportation costs reduce a farmer’s ability to choose when and where to sell grain. Even though Logan County is far from export terminals, global competitiveness still feeds directly into local cash bids. Higher transportation costs don’t just affect shippers or exporters, they reduce farm gate revenue and increase financial pressure for Logan County farmers, even though they never ship grain directly by barge. Higher transportation costs caused by low Mississippi River water levels reduce Logan County farmers’ profits by lowering local grain prices, increasing storage and marketing costs, limiting selling flexibility, and weakening the competitiveness of their grain in domestic and export markets. Are there any long-term solutions? Unfortunately, and realistically, climate is not something that any farmer can control and that is something that no type of planning or answers will help. However, finding long term solutions won’t eliminate drought either, but can reduce how much drought hurts farmers financially by keeping grain moving, protecting price competitiveness, and improving marketing flexibility. Long term solutions to Mississippi River transportation disruptions include maintaining river infrastructure, expanding rail and intermodal capacity, increasing grain storage, diversifying marketing routes, and investing in coordinated regional transportation planning to reduce farmers’ exposure to drought related shipping bottlenecks. Just as no one can control the weather, Logan County farmers can’t control river
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