$10.2 Million Federal Grant to Double Barge Loading Speed at Red Wing Grain

A $10,161,985 federal port grant will rebuild Red Wing Grain's Mississippi River barge loadout, a project general manager Jim Larson says will fill barges "roughly close to twice as fast" as the aging system running today.

The Maritime Administration's Port Infrastructure Development Program awarded the money to the city of Red Wing and Red Wing Grain LLC, according to U.S. Rep. Angie Craig's office. The funds will replace the barge loading system, conveyors, electric winch and dust collection systems at the Port of Red Wing — hardware that in parts dates back 40 to 70 years at a plant that turns 71 this fall.

What does this change for farmers' basis?

For the more than 1,200 Minnesota and Wisconsin producers who sell corn and soybeans to the elevator, it keeps an export outlet open. Rep. Brad Finstad, who backed the application in a May 14 letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, wrote that Red Wing Grain draws grain from growers within 60 to 115 miles of Red Wing and ships more than 500 barges of grain a year.

The economics favor water. Barge shipping costs four to five times less than trucking and 40% less than rail per ton, Finstad wrote. Cargill — which co-owns Red Wing Grain with Ag Partners of Goodhue, Minnesota — buys grain off the dock and barges it to its Gulf of Mexico export facility, where it can move on to buyers in Asia, South America or Africa. In 2022, Larson said roughly 60% of the company's grain came from Minnesota and 40% from Wisconsin.

"We've done a lot of upgrades through the last 25 years," Larson said. "But this is the last huge area of need to update to keep us operationally competitive for the long term."

Why the grant, and why now?

The loadout is the company's only route to export markets. A major failure there would shut down much of the business.

"We're always one big breakdown away from a major impact on our business here," Larson said. "If it breaks down significantly, it puts a big damper on our business."

Costs for this kind of work have doubled, tripled or quadrupled over the past 10 to 15 years, Larson said, and the project doesn't pay for itself quickly. That's why the company needed the grant.

The scope goes beyond the loader itself. Finstad's letter noted the project replaces a 50-year-old barge loading system and a 70-year-old winch system. Plans also include:

• A new winch system to move barges in and out of the loadout zone
• A reader to check barge drafts
• A new electrical room, because the current one is at capacity
• Flood protection for parts of the site

Finstad wrote that faster loading would double loading speed for corn and soybeans and let Red Wing Grain keep truck unloading hours open longer during harvest and big crop years — a direct benefit for growers hauling in peak season.

Safety and the construction window

Both Craig and Finstad said the upgrades will make the work safer, with employees spending less time on barges and handling barge cables less.

"These critical upgrades to the Port will expand local farmers' access to global markets and ensure that port employees can do their jobs safely and efficiently," Craig said in a statement.

Timing is tight. The loadout runs from around April until the river starts to freeze near Thanksgiving, and barges can't be loaded in winter. The company plans to do most of the work from November through March to avoid disrupting operations. Next winter is the earliest construction could start, Larson said, though the company still has to meet grant requirements and wait on steel, conveyors and other long-lead materials.

"Ideally, we'd love to have a lot of it done next winter, but I don't know if it's even possible," he said. "It might have to be two years."

For growers, the payoff is decades of guaranteed export access. "It secures an outlet for them for the export market worldwide for another 50 years, when you think about it," Larson said. "The goal is to get grain out of here as fast as we can to make the supply go down, so the prices can go up for the farmer."