GOOD MORNING, The markets continued to be bandied about by what could be first steps in a long process toward a trade resolution between the US/China. Buyers are nibbling at bean breaks with funds slightly long. This morning, beans are on the defensive with a news article from Bloomberg saying that China is threatening to only make good on their pledge of $50 bln of US agriculture purchases if the US removes retaliatory levies against Chinese goods that have been in place since the trade war started. China's Ag Minister stated that they have already purchased 700,000 tmt of pork and 700,000 tmt of sorghum so far. The impact of ASF will cap off a larger bean rally. While the ins and outs of the negotiations co...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.