Boozman agri tour includes stop in West Memphis

Boozman agri tour includes stop in West Memphis

Senator gets close- up look at Cargill granary during visit

news@theeveningtimes.com

Senator Boozman visited the Cargill AgHorizons granary along the Mississippi River in West Memphis Wednesday afternoon.

The stop was part of his sixth annual agricultural tour. The Senator visited farms in Mississippi County, Cross County and spoke to residents in Jonesboro before looking over the new plant here. Boozman sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, serving as chair of the Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management and Trade, and although trained as an eye doctor, he also raises Heifers.

Cargill opened its brand new facility in March. The riverside facility transloads locally produced corn, beans, milo and wheat from trucks onto river barges for export.

According to plant manager Sam Coppage, the year-round deep-water port and soybean production in the area attracted the Agri business to the city .

“What directly drives this place and made Cargill invest their money into this place is the soy bean production in this part of Arkansas,” he said.

Cargill works to export soybeans to markets in Asia, with most of the beans are sold in China as chicken feed. The Senator noted the sales overseas added up to much more than chicken feed.

“This is so important to the state,” said Boozman.

“For some of our smaller communities it is the largest part of the economy. It’s a large part of our GDP.”

“There is a lot of technology built into this plant,” said Coppage from the chicken office on the trucking lane. “We have four employees here. Two people check the truck, take grading samples and bid the grain. We can dumped truck from in here because we have cameras in the pit.

The other two people are out on the barge loading.”

The plant loads barges at 50,000 bushels per hour.

Most barges are filled in less than two hours. Shipping out by truck is an option too.

Boozman was impressed with the automated throughput at Cargill and responded by underscoring the importance of agricultural to the Arkansas delegation in Washington, DC.

“The Arkansas delegation is working hard to represent the interests of farmers,” said Boozman. “This is about farm country. This is about rural America.

We’re working on both ends of it, the direct farming and the infra-structure, like broad band and roads.

Sometimes that forgotten but it is an important part of it.”

Boozman looked at legislation

ahead.

“We are concerned about low commodity prices,” said Boozman. “There is no way to just fix that, but it certainly helps the economy. Higher prices mean more jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, that’s what helps the economy.

“We’re trying to smooth out the problems we are having with the farm bill,” continued Boozman. “It’s very different from the last farm bill. We want it to help. It will be upcoming very quick. We will begin work on the next one as soon as we get back, after the election, in January.”

By John Rech