President Biden has announced his intention to nominate Alexis Taylor as Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. Taylor has served as the Director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture since late 2016. Previously, she was Deputy Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Ag Services during the Obama administration; that was prior to the domestic Farm Services Agency (FSA) and Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) being split between two separate undersecretaries per the 2014 farm bill. Taylor will be the second person to serve in the trade-only role at USDA. The first was Ted McKinney, former Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, and now CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agric...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
Key Takeaways: On Friday afternoon, President Trump announced that Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the United States. The deal, typical of this administration, is light on details but promises an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 m...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.