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This data derives from USDA/AMS/Market News/Specialty Crops Program movement data, including only truck and import modes at domestic origins. It includes daily fruit and vegetable refrigerated truck volumes by origin district and commodity (from 2000 to 2010, data is weekly). The Transportation Services Division assigns a broader region to the origins in order to join to refrigerated truck rate and availability data.

The data is collected by AMS market reporters. Truck shipments for all commodities and origins are not available. Those obtainable are reported, but should not be interpreted as representing complete movements of a commodity. Truck shipments are collected at shipping points and include both inter and intrastate movements. They are obtained from various sources, including Federal marketing orders, administrative committees, Federal State inspection service and shippers. Methods used include telephone interviews, faxes, emails, and access to other data sources. The movement data is subject to adjustment as new information becomes available. The latest data will generally be under-reported until revisions are made. Updates to Market News Movement data can happen daily, weekly, monthly, and can happen at any time during the season. The Transportation Services Division updates our data from Market News weekly, including historical revisions.

Weekly barge rates for downbound freight originating from seven locations along the Mississippi River System, which includes the Mississippi River and its tributaries (e.g., Upper Mississippi River, Illinois River, Ohio River, etc.). The seven locations are: (1) "Twin Cities," a stretch along the Upper Mississippi; (2) "Mid-Mississippi," a stretch between eastern Iowa and western Illinois; (3) "Illinois River," along the lower portion of the Illinois River; (4) "St. Louis"; (5) "Cincinnati," along the middle third of the Ohio River; (6) "Lower Ohio," approximately the final third of the Ohio River; and (7) "Cairo-Memphis," from Cairo, IL, to Memphis, TN (see map under Attachments).

The U.S. Inland Waterway System utilizes a percent-of-tariff system to establish barge freight rates. The tariffs were originally from the Bulk Grain and Grain Products Freight Tariff No. 7, which were issued by the Waterways Freight Bureau (WFB) of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). In 1976, the United States Department of Justice entered into an agreement with the ICC and made Tariff No. 7 no longer applicable. Today, the WFB no longer exists, and the ICC has become the Surface Transportation Board, which does not have jurisdiction over barge rates on the inland waterways. However, the barge industry continues to use the tariffs as benchmarks for rate units.

Each city on the river has its own benchmark, with the northern most cities having the highest benchmarks. They are as follows: Twin Cities = 619; Mid-Mississippi = 532; St. Louis = 399; Illinois = 464; Cincinnati = 469; Lower Ohio = 446; and Cairo-Memphis = 314.

To calculate the rate in dollars per ton, multiply the percent of tariff rate by the 1976 benchmark and divide by 100: (Rate * 1976 tariff benchmark rate per ton)/100. As an example, a 271 percent tariff for a St. Louis grain barge would equal 271 percent of the St. Louis benchmark rate of $3.99, or $10.81 per ton.

The graphs examine trends regarding transportation used to move grains grown for the food and feed industry in domestic and foreign markets. Please note that when some graphs are filtered by mode, data from 1984 are only available.

This data includes historical volumes of U.S. grains inspected for export from major U.S. port regions and countries of destination. Information Contained In This Data Reflects Exported Grain Inspected And Weighed Through The Authority Under The U.S. Grain Standards Act.

The Mississippi River (north of St. Louis, MO) and its tributaries (e.g., the Arkansas River, Illinois River, Ohio River, etc.) make use of a series of locks and dams to bring traffic up and down the waterways. Grain generally flows south from the relatively production-rich areas of the Midwest to export ports in Louisiana and feed markets in the southeast.

This dataset provides weekly information on the amount (in tons), location, and commodity of barged grain transiting the following three major points: (1) the last lock on the Mississippi, Mississippi Locks 27 (called "Miss Locks 27" in the dataset), which captures downbound traffic from the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers; (2) the last lock on the Ohio River, Olmsted Locks and Dam (called "Ohio Olmstead" in the dataset), which captures any downbound traffic on the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers; and (3) the last lock on the Arkansas River, Arkansas River Lock and Dam 1 (called "Ark Lock 1" in the dataset).

Ohio Olmsted locks replaced Ohio Locks 52 beginning in November 2018.

Commodities include "corn," "soybeans," "wheat," and "other" (oats, barley, sorghum, and rye).

Combined, these three locks give a sense of barge grain traffic (by commodity) on the Mississippi--since grain shipments heading south from the Upper Mississippi River, Illinois River, Ohio River, and Arkansas River are captured. Note, however, that this data does not include all grain barge movements on the Mississippi Rover System, as some grain originates on the Mississippi below the locking portion (south of St. Louis, MO). Grain traffic originating below Lock 27 on the Mississippi is about 10 to 30 percent of total downbound grain shipments, which varies year to year.

A similar dataset, "Upbound and Downbound Loaded and Empty Barge Movements (Count)," contains information on the count of grain barges moving down the locking system (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/w6ip-grsn) versus this dataset that shows tonnages.

Data is collected weekly from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Lock Performance Monitoring System.

Weekly train speeds data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. The STB began collecting service metrics from railroads in October 2014. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide data on the average speed of their trains (in miles per hour), broken out by commodity/type such as automotive, coal, crude oil, ethanol, grain, intermodal, manifest, etc. Railroads also report a “system average” train speed. According to the STB rulemaking, train speed should be measured for line-haul movements between terminals. The average speed for each train type should be calculated by dividing total train miles by total hours operated.