Big Ag Ends in Big Squeeze The bull market will be prolonged if foodies drive food production techniques back to the Stone Age. Regulating the Villains The role of futures markets has never been well understood by the general public. Nevertheless, the impact of speculators and other non-commercial participants on futures market price action and on consumer prices for fuel and food has been a widely studied topic during the last several years. A Banner Year Ahead for U.S. Soy Exports The outlook for U.S. soybean exports for the remainder of the current marketing year and in 2012/13 appears to be excellent. If the U.S. is able to produce a large soybean crop in 2012, it is possible U.S. soybean exports will approach a new record in the n...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes, with the U.S. hitting Iranian bridges, energy sites, and military infrastructure. Iran launched a missile into Kuwait that damaged a desalination plant. Crude oil futures surged on heightened Middle East tensions, providing supp...
Key Takeaways: The EU heatwaves have coincided with key maize crop reproductive timing and featured high nighttime temperatures, a cruel two-sided blow to maize yields. France, much of western Europe, and Hungary have suffered the worst of the heat, with yield potential collapsing. WPI&r...
Congress returned this week from its Fourth of July recess, with another break scheduled for the month of August, to face a busy agenda before adjourning for the August recess. Congress has several priorities, including the National Defense Authorization Act, a potential third reconciliation pa...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.