The crop budget worksheets are of course only estimates, and virtually every producer will have a different set of numbers. Yields are always the key factor in these types of profit/loss exercises.As mentioned in Monday’s analysis, many of the university extension services now have 2016 crop budget worksheets available on their websites. The bottom line projections are break-even at best, but they mostly show negative returns per acre even before setting aside some dollars for “return to labor and management” (i.e., any cash for living expenses, etc.). A quick look at the numbers for southeastern North Dakota and western Minnesota ranks the crops that follow in order of best to worst. The best case in these projections is the least loss. Be...
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...
Key Market Insights Macro markets delivered a full whipsaw today. Early in the session, crude oil had rallied back above $100/barrel as traders priced renewed concern over the U.S.-Iran standoff and potential supply risk through the Strait of Hormuz. That strength helped pull grains off their o...
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.