Livestock Live Hog Price Sees Slight Gain During Holiday Week Some analysts and the leadership at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) had expected pig prices to rise with the Labor Day holiday week, which ended yesterday. According to surveys from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), however, the national average price, which fluctuated a bit over the five-day holiday that began on 29 April, only rose by just RMB .07/kg ($.01/kg) through Wednesday. As the Labor Day celebrations are one of China’s three Golden Week holidays (the others are the Lunar New Year and National Day), market optimists had expected a renewed tourism boom would drive up meat consumption. China’s Tourism Academy recently st...
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
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.