Farm Bureau Backs New Missouri River Biological Assessment

Missouri’s largest farm-based organization backs the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ biological assessment of future management of the Missouri River. Missouri Farm Bureau President Charlie Kruse agrees with Attorney General Jay Nixon that the absence of man-made spring floods and low summer flows from a biological assessment used to write a new master manual for management of the Missouri Rver is good news from the Corps of Engineers. Kruse even seems to soften his group’s opposition to the assessment’s proposed shortened barge navigation season considered just a month ago to be a bad precedent for how the river would be managed. But he is still concerned about the impact of having fewer days for barges to take farmers’ products to market. Kruse says he hopes common sense will eventually prevail, and the water held in the upstream dams will be released to help navigation during drought times.