What is interesting is the potential domino effect this nomination would have politically if it leads (as it probably will) to Baucus leaving the Senate before the end of his term.President Obama announced his intent today to nominate Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) to be U.S. Ambassador to China. Senator Baucus had announced his plans to retire from the Senate in 2014 at the end of this term, his sixth. Baucus' potential nomination should be met with a great deal of support from the agriculture sector. He is well-versed in trade issues through his role on the Finance Committee and is a strong proponent of U.S .agriculture. His posting in China, the United States' largest ag export customer, will be welcomed. Baucus...
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.