Russian Grain Markets: 28 April – 2 May 2025 Russian audit, corporate finance, and consultancy company BEFL published a rating of Russia’s largest megafarms which included 75 companies – half the number registered a year ago. This is telling us that large farms are becoming even larger. There were some major M&A in the sector including taking foreign assets and redirecting them into Russian hands or nationalizing those. The total area these megafarms are farming covers 19 Mha which is 500,000 ha up from last year. The top 10 farms cover 7.7 Mha which is 41 percent of the overall megafarms area. The previous report was showing that top ten was farming 7 Mha. For reference, 2024 was the year of the largest M&A...
After spending much of the year searching for a reason to stay, the bulls suddenly have several. Grain markets have strengthened, wheat is leading the charge, outside markets are becoming more supportive, and geopolitical and weather risks are once again demanding attention. Does that mean the...
Key Takeaways: Cover crops are gaining adoption as farmers seek to improve soil health, reduce erosion, and build more resilient cropping systems. While cover crops do not provide immediate revenue, their long-term benefits include improved nutrient retention, water management, and soil produc...
The latest EIA data showed some interesting anomalies in the ethanol industry, changes that will have a material impact on the industry’s profits and corn consumption for 2025/26 and early 2026/27. The EIA reported that ethanol production fell 4.8 percent for the week ending 10 July...
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.