There is currently little incentive – other than the RFS mandate – to blend more ethanol if the price increases or the price of gasoline decreases in the coming year.The battle over the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), now going into its 10th year, is as hot as ever with both sides weighing in heavily before the end of this month when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue the final rule on the required volume obligations for years 2014, 2015, and 2016. The RFS volume obligation for 2014 will be based on the amount of ethanol produced and used that year, which EPA likely underestimated when it issued the proposed rule in May 2015. The proposal included an implied 13.2 billion gallons of conventional corn ethanol, which will...
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.