World Perspectives

Deep Bench to Fight RFK; China Market Risk; Thankless Job

Deep Bench to Fight RFKBeing the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is usually a pretty good job. It involves doling out billions of dollars, the constituency is dominated by courteous country people, and controversies tend to be minor. The person serving the longest in any Cabinet position was James “Tama Jim” Wilson at USDA for 16 years. Current USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack will have served in the position for 12 years. Henry A. Wallace served as USDA chief for eight years before being elevated to Vice President. Officially, the position is mid-tier in the presidential line of succession. But it is technically oriented, and the weakest secretaries have been those ill-suited to the job. Per Dave Juday’s discussion of who might be the next US...

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Beef and Pork Past, Present and Future

USDA’s November slaughter data helps decode some of the outlook for 2026. There are the known knowns - cattle and hog numbers are down, weights are up, and the breeding inventory for cattle is growing while for hogs it remains constant. But stabilized dairy cow slaughter, lower sow slaugh...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Export Sales Fail to Excite Soybeans; Corn, Wheat Down on Technical Trade

The CBOT traded mostly lower on Tuesday with funds remaining dedicated sellers. The motivation for their selling stems partially from pre-holiday risk-off trading and partially from the technical weakness enveloping the charts. Corn was the downside leader for the second straight day, though ob...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.405/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.1075/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.6225/bushel, down $0.0125 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $302.3/short ton, down...

livestock

Beef and Pork Past, Present and Future

USDA’s November slaughter data helps decode some of the outlook for 2026. There are the known knowns - cattle and hog numbers are down, weights are up, and the breeding inventory for cattle is growing while for hogs it remains constant. But stabilized dairy cow slaughter, lower sow slaugh...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Export Sales Fail to Excite Soybeans; Corn, Wheat Down on Technical Trade

The CBOT traded mostly lower on Tuesday with funds remaining dedicated sellers. The motivation for their selling stems partially from pre-holiday risk-off trading and partially from the technical weakness enveloping the charts. Corn was the downside leader for the second straight day, though ob...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.405/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.1075/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.6225/bushel, down $0.0125 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $302.3/short ton, down...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: South American Weather, Profit Tanking Sink CBOT

Grains and oilseeds nearly all traded lower to start the week with profit taking driving most of the action as the CBOT enters another holiday-shortened week. The only market to finish higher was soyoil, where a geopolitical tension driving bounce in crude oil helped support the vegoil. Improve...

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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.

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