China Assault Team More than 150 American companies and trade associations signed a letter calling on President Trump to reach an agreement this weekend with Chinese President Xi Jinping that ends the application of punitive tariffs. Notable for their absence on the letter were some of the key organizations adversely impacted by Mr. Trump’s trade war: the American Soybean Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Pushing from the opposite side with their own letter were key Democratic officials in the U.S. Senate: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and possible 2020 presidential contender Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The Democrats are arguing that they have called...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
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.