World Perspectives

Bipolar World; GMO Hobgoblins

Bipolar World Countries were already divided before Russia’s war on Ukraine, but the conflict has brought it into plain sight. The WTO has been unable to reach any new agreements for decades. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged this week that the upcoming 12th ministerial conference would only be a stocktaking session, which is probably all it was going to be anyways. Trade growth is slowing and nations are hell-bent on reshoring and only trading out of necessity. The G20 is a smaller group of countries than the WTO but still disparate enough to limit progress. Nothing gets hurt if the November meeting is just a shouting match between Russia and its opponents.  What is new is the split developing in monetary polic...

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Bullish Cattle Inventory and Cattle on Feed Reports

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Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.19/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.3825/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.21/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $281.6/short ton, down $1...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

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Markets opened today pretty much where they ended in the overnight and pretty much stayed that way all day, which is to say in the red. And it did so pretty much across the board on lower volume. There was just not any real change in the story of impending big U.S. crops arriving on top of big...

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Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.19/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.3825/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.21/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $281.6/short ton, down $1...

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Cattle on Feed for July 1, 2025

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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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