World Perspectives

APEC’s Bad Omen; Bad Choices for U.S. Ag

APEC’s Bad Omen While Beijing has reportedly responded in writing to Washington’s demand for specific trade reforms, the market should not place too much hope in a Sino-American reconciliation. More indicative of the situation was a meeting this past weekend of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which was uncooperative. The meeting ended without a joint statement for the first time in its quarter-century history. At this juncture, it seems unlikely that anything reassuring to the markets will arise out of the upcoming meeting between Presidents Xi and Trump. Vice President Mike Pence made particularly strident criticisms of Chinese policies, and this will greatly please Mr. Trump since he prefers that underlings bar...

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Market Commentary: Yield, Acreage Increases Sink Corn, Soybeans

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Venezuela Oil Situation and Oil Price Impacts

The world woke up on Jan. 3 to news of the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela. Few expected this move from the U.S. administration, but in hindsight it may not have been surprising. The Biden administration had placed a $25 million bounty on Maduro through the...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Yield, Acreage Increases Sink Corn, Soybeans

The CBOT came under heavy selling pressure following the January WASDE as USDA unexpectedly increased U.S. corn acreage and yields. The USDA also added area to the soybean harvested and made a bearish cut to U.S. wheat demand, moves which sent all of the major commodity futures markets sharply...

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The world woke up on Jan. 3 to news of the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela. Few expected this move from the U.S. administration, but in hindsight it may not have been surprising. The Biden administration had placed a $25 million bounty on Maduro through the...

feed-grains

WASDE Corn - Jan 2026

USDA’s Jan estimate for 2025/26 U.S. corn is for larger production and higher feed residual usage to result in greater ending stocks: Corn production is estimated at 17.0 billion bushels, up 269 million on a 0.5-bushel increase in yield to 186.5 bushels per acre and a 1.3-million acre ris...

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From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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