The quote the grain trade prices off. It is a percentage of a 1976 tariff, so the level means nothing but the moves mean everything: it ran from 404 to 2,075 across 2022 as low water forced lighter tows, and every point of that comes out of the farm gate price.
30 days to 4 Oct 2026 · 818.75% of tariff to 896.88% of tariff
This page shows the last 30 days. Illinois River barge rate has 163 readings in the warehouse, back to 15 Aug 2023. A plan opens the rest of it, with CSV export and the analyst.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service
Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Agricultural Transportation Open Data Platform, agtransport.usda.gov. Barge movement counts collected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Weekly southbound barge freight rate from the lower Illinois River, as a percentage of the 1976 benchmark tariff. The Illinois quote is the one the trade watches, and it is the series USDA charts as the headline barge rate.
Informational research only. Nothing here is personalised investment advice.