World Perspectives
livestock

Cattle Inventory Report: U.S. Cattle Herd Still in Contraction

USDA released its January Cattle Inventory report today. The U.S. cattle herd is still in a contraction phase.  The total inventory of all cattle and calves as of 1 January was 86.7 million head, down 500,000 head from last year. Key numbers from today’s report are: The cattle on feed estimate showed 87.2 percent on feedlots of 1,000 head or more capacity, slightly higher than last year.  The combined total of calves under 500 pounds, other heifers, plus steers over 500 pounds, representing the number of feeder cattle outside of feedlots, was 24.6 million head, just slightly below 1 January 2024. The 1 January number of feeder cattle outside of feedlots is the lowest since 2015. Feeder cattle outside feed lots make up 63 p...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Bear, Bear, Every Where a Bear

Today was National Poinsettia Day, a plant that is supposed to symbolize goodwill and success but that is only true for the bears today.  There was red all over Chicago and New York as investors counted their blessings of too much grain and too much risk. The only thing rising in value was...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.4075/bushel, down $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.2925/bushel, down $0.0425 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $10.7675/bushel, down $0.1675 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $302.5/short ton, up...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Export Sales

U.S. Export Sales and Shipments for the week ending Nov 13, 2025...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Bear, Bear, Every Where a Bear

Today was National Poinsettia Day, a plant that is supposed to symbolize goodwill and success but that is only true for the bears today.  There was red all over Chicago and New York as investors counted their blessings of too much grain and too much risk. The only thing rising in value was...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.4075/bushel, down $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.2925/bushel, down $0.0425 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $10.7675/bushel, down $0.1675 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $302.5/short ton, up...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Export Sales

U.S. Export Sales and Shipments for the week ending Nov 13, 2025...

WPI Grain Transportation Report

Dry-bulk markets were softer last week with Capesize markets seeing weaker interest from East Australia and other Pacific locales. Traders are describing spot tonnage in the Pacific as “abundant”, a mentality that is pressuring rates. Similarly, demand for C3 ex Brazil and West Afri...

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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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