The U.S. election is in just a few days (Tuesday, 3 November). Virtually any outcome is possible. The range is so wide because of the close popular vote margins in a number of states. Note that it is so close that some models predict two outcomes. The election is based on the collective total of electoral votes that candidates earn by winning a state; those votes are based on the Congressional representation that each state has, plus three for the District of Colombia. Campaign strategies of winning state by state to get 270 electoral votes is like a giant game of sudoku. There are a total of 538 electoral votes, it takes 270 to win the Presidential election. For context, in 2016 Trump beat Clinton 304 to 227, in 2012 Obama 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...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
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.