Cultural History April Kicks Off with Annual Qingming Festival or Ancestors’ Day China’s domestic market began the first full week of April on a subdued note with the Qingming holiday or Tomb-Sweeping Day falling on Tuesday. This resulted in much of the country taking a long-weekend break to visit with family and pay respects to their ancestors who have passed on to the afterlife. The colloquial term – Tomb-Sweeping Day – illustrates exactly what occurs, as China’s citizens from all walks of life pay respect to their ancestors by sweeping their tombs and gravesites and then providing offerings of tea, food, and other gifts as an act of the Confucian tradition of filial piety. The holiday is not confined to Ch...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
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.