World Perspectives
biofuel

E15’s Rube Goldberg Regulations

Last Friday, 19 April, the EPA issued an emergency waiver for E15 to be sold through the summer driving season. The topline takeaway of that action is positive for the ethanol sector, but the practicality of implementing the new rule is more complex.   Indeed, the structure of the Clean Air Act (CAA) regulatory scheme for E15 is cumbersome and inefficient. It is reminiscent of the contraptions depicted by the early 20th century cartoons from engineer and cartoonist Rube Goldberg. Mr. Goldberg was a famous and award-winning cartoonist who caricaturized complicated, multi-step machines, designed to perform the most basic and simple tasks. The legacy of his cartoon drawings remains today in the form of Rube Goldberg Machine contests...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.625/bushel, up $0.03 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.55/bushel, down $0.085 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $322.4/short ton, down $4.2 from y...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Diminishing Energy Impacts on CBOT Trade

Tuesday’s energy markets took back about half of Monday’s losses as tensions in the Arab Gulf flared again, despite recent announcements of diplomatic talks and a five-day cooling-down period from the U.S. Overnight, Iran and Israel launched new rounds of attacks on each other, and...

Thune Introduces Fertilizer Price Reporting Bill

The war in Iran has brought the four-year simmering focus on fertilizer prices to a quick boil.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) introduced the Fertilizer Transparency Act, cosponsored by Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsi...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.625/bushel, up $0.03 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.55/bushel, down $0.085 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $322.4/short ton, down $4.2 from y...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Diminishing Energy Impacts on CBOT Trade

Tuesday’s energy markets took back about half of Monday’s losses as tensions in the Arab Gulf flared again, despite recent announcements of diplomatic talks and a five-day cooling-down period from the U.S. Overnight, Iran and Israel launched new rounds of attacks on each other, and...

Thune Introduces Fertilizer Price Reporting Bill

The war in Iran has brought the four-year simmering focus on fertilizer prices to a quick boil.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) introduced the Fertilizer Transparency Act, cosponsored by Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsi...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins improved further, with estimated net returns increasing to $126/head from $48/head the prior week. The gains were driven by another firming in the choice beef cutout, which rose to $392.85/cwt, while fed cattle prices were largely stable. The resulting expansion in the sprea...

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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.

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