World Perspectives

Chemically Named; Farms In, Government Out

Chemically Named Europe’s wine grape growers are complaining that EU regulations prohibit them from using the fungicide sodium hydrogen carbonate. It was approved as a basic substance but then a manufacturer incorporated it as the active ingredient in a manufactured product and EU regulations required farmers to purchase the more expensive active ingredient rather than the basic substance.  Sodium hydrogen carbonate, also known as baking soda will likely get a reprieve but the case reinforces some of the absurdities in food safety laws. This flawed criticism is now also the case for food ingredients in the U.S. that have historically been categorized as generally regarded a safe (GRAS) but are now vilified by supporters of RFK, J...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Lots of Uncertainties Except Certain Problems with China

There was no reversal of yesterday’s decline in commodity markets. The trend is your friend, and that beat out thoughts of a technical reversal. The market was down at the open and then came even more bearish outside influences.  Commodity and financial market prices plunged as the t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.13/bushel, down $0.0525 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $4.985/bushel, down $0.08 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.0675/bushel, down $0.155 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $275/short ton, down $1.9 f...

Reconciliation Bill Increases Crop Payments

The reconciliation bill signed into law on 4 July, aka the One Big Beautiful Bill, increased statutory reference prices under the Agricultural Risk Payments (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs and made some changes to the effective reference prices (ERP) which are used to calculate pay...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Lots of Uncertainties Except Certain Problems with China

There was no reversal of yesterday’s decline in commodity markets. The trend is your friend, and that beat out thoughts of a technical reversal. The market was down at the open and then came even more bearish outside influences.  Commodity and financial market prices plunged as the t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.13/bushel, down $0.0525 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $4.985/bushel, down $0.08 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.0675/bushel, down $0.155 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $275/short ton, down $1.9 f...

Reconciliation Bill Increases Crop Payments

The reconciliation bill signed into law on 4 July, aka the One Big Beautiful Bill, increased statutory reference prices under the Agricultural Risk Payments (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs and made some changes to the effective reference prices (ERP) which are used to calculate pay...

soy-oilseeds

What Spreads and Basis Are Saying About Soybean Exports

The government shutdown has entered its tenth day, leaving the grain markets without two weeks of export data. Fortunately, the USDA AMS and FGIS continue to publish the weekly Export Inspections report, leaving the grain industry not totally blind to exports. Even so, that report covers only a...

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From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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