JEFFERSON CITY – With no end in sight to this year’s record-setting drought and concern that hay shortages might spread, the Missouri Department of Agriculture requested assistance for farmers from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

MoDOT announced it will allow heavier than normal loads of corn and other crop silage and baleage to be hauled on selected Missouri highways. Private and for-hire motor carriers may carry up to 10 percent more than their licensed weight, however, the heavier loads are not allowed to use interstate routes or national defense highway routes.
Farmers who determine their corn, milo, hay and other crops will not bear a harvest often cut, chop and transform the plants into food for livestock.
Overweight permits are not required for these slightly overweight loads. All other traffic and motor carrier regulations that normally apply remain in place. This waiver is in effect between noon, Friday, July 27, 2012 and noon, Friday, August 31, 2012. While the waiver is in effect, participating motor carriers are limited to:
· A loaded, gross weight no greater than ten percent (10%) above the gross licensed weight of the commercial motor vehicle
· Transportation only within the State of Missouri
· Drivers must obey all posted bridge weight limits
· When crossing a bridge, the driver must restrict the vehicle speed to no more than thirty miles per hour (30 mph) and must center the truck between two lanes of the bridge. The truck driver must yield to oncoming traffic, and
· Travel on highways other than Missouri interstate and national defense highways – NO TRAVEL IS ALLOWED ON MISSOURI INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS OR NATIONAL DEFENSE HIGHWAY ROUTES.

All travelers are advised to visit the MoDOT Traveler Information Map at www.modot.org for up-to-date road closure information.
For questions, call 1-800-877-8499 between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Central Time.

National defense highways in Missouri include:
U.S. 65 – between Interstate 70 and U.S. 60 in Springfield, Mo.
U.S. 60 – From U.S. 65 in Springfield to U.S. 63 in Cabool, Mo.
U.S. 63 – From U.S. 60 in Cabool to the Arkansas state line
U.S. 71 – from Kansas City to the Arkansas state line
U.S. 50 and Mo. 23 – From Whiteman Air Force Base to I-470 in Kansas City
Mo. 17 and U.S. 63 – From Fort Leonard Wood to U.S. 60

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As the drought continues to take its toll on the corn and soybean crops – the Director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has taken a look at the economic effects of short corn and soybean crops as well as a potential Renewable Fuel Standard waiver. CARD Director Bruce Babcock used a maximum corn yield of 148-bushels per acre and an average yield of 138-bushels per acre. The lowest yield used was 120-bushels per acre. Babcock says two findings stand out. First – he says the flexibility built into the RFS allowing obligated parties to carry over blending credits from previous years significantly lowers the economic impacts of a short crop. According to Babcock – the 2.4-billion gallon amount of flexibility assumed in the study lowers the corn price impact of the ethanol mandate in the drought year from $1.19 per bushel to 28-cents per bushel. As such – unless corn yields are much lower than assumed in the study – he says relaxing the mandate further would have modest impacts on corn prices. Babcock says the second stand out finding implies that ethanol plants will be a strong competitor for corn even without a mandate.

Babcock says the finding is that if the current price of ethanol relative to gasoline accurately reflects the value of ethanol to blenders – then the price of ethanol will be supported at quite an attractive level as long as ethanol quantities are not pushing up against the blend wall. In the no mandate scenario – Babcock says ethanol production only drops by 600-million gallons when the mandate is waived. According to Babcock – additional flexibility in ethanol mandates may not result in as large a drop in feed costs as livestock groups hoped. Again – the high value of ethanol is only high relative to the price of gasoline. Babcock says a waiver of the mandate would have a larger impact if gasoline prices drop.