NEW Cooperative in Fort Dodge, Iowa, has officially opened its new Port of Blencoe terminal on the Missouri River, located midway between Council Bluffs and Sioux City, Iowa. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the facility on June 2, with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig attending as guest speakers.
NEW first announced plans for the $11 million terminal in August last year (GM Aug. 14, 2020). The terminal is situated on 38 acres and is the farthest stop north on the nearly 760-mile span of the Missouri from St. Louis, Mo., to Sioux City, Iowa. NEW described it as the most active port on the northern Missouri and “a gateway to world markets” that will shift high-volume freight from the road to the waterway.
“It’s well established that transporting ag goods, like grain, by barge is significantly more effective than doing so by rail or truck,” said Reynolds. “But when Iowans think of a waterway transport, we’re used to thinking almost exclusively about the Mississippi. Thanks to the Port of Blencoe, however, the Missouri is about to experience a traffic infusion of its own.”
NEW General Manager Dan Dix said the terminal is capable of handling six barges, and has already received upriver shipments of fertilizer and aggregates while pushing out downstream shipments of corn and DDGs. Dix said NEW has “developed a relationship” with fertilizer importer EuroChem, which he said will “enhance our members’ ability to bring fertilizer directly into the country.”
“Today New Cooperative is opening a gateway that will bring the world to western Iowa, adding value to the farming operations of our 6,000 member-owners, and by extension adding economic value to the surrounding states and beyond the Upper Missouri River,” Dix said at the opening ceremony. “We believe this is just the beginning for many other products that are capable of being transloaded through this port.”
The terminal opening marks another step in bringing commercial navigation back to the Missouri after barge activity nearly ended in the early 2000s due to a number of factors, including low river levels and conflicts between upriver and downriver states over water uses (GM June 6, 2005).
An Army Corps of Engineers management plan in 2003 tried to balance those competing interests (GM Aug. 18, 2003), but major barge lines began opting out of Missouri River navigation in 2004 (GM Jan. 19, 2004). State officials said the Corps has agreed to maintain a nine-foot depth in the Missouri near the Port of Blencoe to accommodate barge movement.
“It’s critically important, now more than ever, that we continue to support ongoing navigation on the Missouri River, and that the Army Corps of Engineers does its job to provide a reliable and consistent navigation channel here,” Naig said at the opening ceremony.
Founded in 1973 with the merger of cooperatives in Badger and Vincent, Iowa, NEW Cooperative is an agronomy, grain, energy, and feed cooperative with 575 employees and 39 locations throughout western and northwest Iowa. Members will vote this month on a merger proposal with MaxYield Cooperative in West Bend, Iowa (GM April 30, p. 1). If approved, the merger would become effective on Aug. 1, 2021.