World Perspectives
livestock

Bye Bye Black Sheep

New Zealand famously is a country with more sheep than people, but the competition is slipping in favor of humans. The problem is the economics of wool, which is no longer an economically supportive coproduct. Wool is less needed in a warming world with many man-made alternative fibers, and landowners make more money converting grasslands to carbon credit paying forests.   Wool production in New Zealand and in the rest of the world is in decline. While sheep meat output in New Zealand declines along with that of wool, global sheep meat has been expanding. However, it is falling behind the expansion rate of competing animal proteins such as poultry meat. Lamb consumption has always had a smaller group of fans, based on historic ge...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.625/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.985/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $12.2725/bushel, up $0.1325 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $320.2/short ton, up $4.8 fro...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Energy Volatility Sets the Tone for Commodities

Key Market Developments Crude oil has been the architect behind the violent price swings seen across the grain markets over the last four trading sessions. Corn, soybeans, and wheat have been trading almost as a mirror to crude oil, with speculative capital moving rapidly between markets as ene...

livestock

Livestock Round Up: CPI Overview

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the February Consumer Price Index (CPI) yesterday. During February, the CPI for all items increased by 0.3 percent and was up 2.4 percent year over year. The categories of shelter, food, and energy were the major contributors to February inflation...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.625/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.985/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $12.2725/bushel, up $0.1325 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $320.2/short ton, up $4.8 fro...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Energy Volatility Sets the Tone for Commodities

Key Market Developments Crude oil has been the architect behind the violent price swings seen across the grain markets over the last four trading sessions. Corn, soybeans, and wheat have been trading almost as a mirror to crude oil, with speculative capital moving rapidly between markets as ene...

livestock

Livestock Round Up: CPI Overview

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the February Consumer Price Index (CPI) yesterday. During February, the CPI for all items increased by 0.3 percent and was up 2.4 percent year over year. The categories of shelter, food, and energy were the major contributors to February inflation...

wheat

WASDE Wheat - Mar 2026

USDA’s outlook for 2025/26 U.S. wheat supply and use categories are unchanged from last month. Global supplies increased modestly by 0.2 million tons to 1,101.8 million and global ending stocks remain at a 5-year high. The result is that the average U.S. farm price is adjusted up modestly...

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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.

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