CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — The soybean industry is sounding the alarm about the nation’s failing transportation infrastructure.

In a study released in July the United Soybean Board (USB), U.S. Soybean Export Council and Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) put many facts on all the anecdotes that have been thrown around lately. The study is called Farm To Market: A Soybean’s Journey From Field To Consumer.

Key components of the transportation infrastructure used to move soybeans around the country, and often outside the country, are failing, are not properly maintained, have not been updated and are no longer adequate to keep up with the growing demand, according to the report.

In particular, locks and dams, rivers, highways and railroads are not being properly maintained and are not being updated the way they need to be, according to the 341-page report. The country’s railroad system, built in the 19th century, “fostered the economic vitality of the United States but its functional design has been eclipsed, desperately needing rebuilding and modernizing,” the report stated.

Unlike the lock and dam system and rivers, railroads are completely privately owned. When asked about what role government should have, if any, in helping to rebuild the railroad system, STC Executive Director Mike Steenhoek said there used to be a tax credit for shortline railroads to provide an incentive to upgrade their tracks, but that was dropped last year along with a number of other tax credits.

“It’s been a very effective tool to help shortline railroads build infrastructure in rural America,” Steenhoek said.

In addition, he noted there’s a legislative proposal for an investment tax credit for the large railroads – Class 1 railroads – but those companies have concluded “for now” that Congress isn’t interested in new tax credits for companies.

“There’s a significant number of lawmakers that are against those tax credits,” Steenhoek said. “I think these would be great for agriculture. We’re expecting to see increased demand for rail of 36 percent over the next 10 years, and we’re concerned whether there’ll be sufficient capacity to handle that increased demand.”

Increased exports are reflected in the fact that, according to the study, grain and soybean rail car-loading destinations to the Pacific Northwest have increased substantially. In the 1995/96 crop year there were 200,000, while in the 2009/10 crop year there were approximately 350,000, even as the same statistic for most other destinations remained about the same or even dropped.

The study also revealed that during this same time frame, both the size of individual railcars as well as the size of trains have increased. Railcars smaller than 5,000 cubic feet dropped from 1.4 million to just under 600,000, while trains with 25 or fewer cars dropped from 40 percent of the share of tonnage to 30 percent. During this same time, trains with more than 100 cars went from just above zero to just over 30 percent.

Also, grain and soybean railcar loadings originating in the Western Corn Belt increased from 700,000 in the 1995/96 crop year to almost 900,000 in the 2009/10 crop year, even as those originating in the Eastern Corn Belt remained steady.

“The industry has been transitioning from smaller trains that hauled relatively shorter distances using smaller cars, to an industry with more cars per train on longer hauls using bigger cars through shuttle train programs,” the study said. 

“The transition has developed as crop production has expanded north and westward into the western Corn Belt, where corn and soybeans are supplanting wheat area.”

The study contains a generous amount of information about production in soybean-producing states, as well as the movement of the crop. Illustrated by several flowcharts, soybean production is shown for the 2009/10 crop year.

For example, in Michigan production was 79.6 million bushels, or 2.4 million tons, and 636,000 tons were moved out of state; 561,000 of those were exported. Top destinations for those soybeans were China, Europe and Japan. The total value of Michigan soybean production was $759 million; the value of the exported portion was $199 million.

To read the entire study, go to the USB’s website at www.united

soybean.org