USDA released the latest Census of Agriculture today. Typically, the release is every five years, so this is the 2022 census, updated from 2017. The response rate to the 2022 census was 61 percent; in 2017 it was 72 percent. Total farm sales in 2022, a year of record farm income, were $543 billion, up 39 percent from 2017, with 19.4 percent of that accounted for by inflation. Reflecting changes in the market and updates from the 2018 farm bill there were new questions added to the survey, including the use of precision agriculture and hemp production. However, a big takeaway is that the same trends held course, such as consolidation and aging of farmers, over the past five years. For example, there were 105,384 farms wi...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.