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...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Bears Rule Mostly; Rain and Sunshine Make Grain

Wheat and pigs were the day’s winners, with much of the rest of the contracts bleeding red. President Trump’s war of words with China added some negative energy on the day. It was similar for the week with HRS and hogs adding value, and soymeal higher by a miniscule fraction, but th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Jul 25 Corn closed at $4.47/bushel, down $0.04 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Wheat closed at $5.34/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soybeans closed at $10.5175/bushel, up $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soymeal closed at $296.4/short ton, up $2.7 from...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Volatility versus Fundamentals

Markets have been trending lower this week and while soybeans and SRW teased lower numbers this morning, both ultimately turned around and left corn and soyoil the lonely losers for the day. HRS continued to bounce on the lower crop rating early this week. In contrast to SRW and HRW, HRS is up...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Bears Rule Mostly; Rain and Sunshine Make Grain

Wheat and pigs were the day’s winners, with much of the rest of the contracts bleeding red. President Trump’s war of words with China added some negative energy on the day. It was similar for the week with HRS and hogs adding value, and soymeal higher by a miniscule fraction, but th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Jul 25 Corn closed at $4.47/bushel, down $0.04 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Wheat closed at $5.34/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soybeans closed at $10.5175/bushel, up $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soymeal closed at $296.4/short ton, up $2.7 from...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Volatility versus Fundamentals

Markets have been trending lower this week and while soybeans and SRW teased lower numbers this morning, both ultimately turned around and left corn and soyoil the lonely losers for the day. HRS continued to bounce on the lower crop rating early this week. In contrast to SRW and HRW, HRS is up...

livestock

Livestock Roundup: Chicken Weights Suggest Sandwich War Return

USDA updated its forecast for broiler production in 2025 and released its initial estimate for 2026. The 2025 estimate was revised lower by 260 million pounds and is now expected to be up just 1.1 percent from the previous year. At the beginning of the year, projections were for a 1.4 percent i...

Image
From WPI Consulting

Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming

WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up