World Perspectives
biofuel

Energy and Agriculture

Global agriculture produces energy, with 23 percent of ethanol produced from sugarcane, and another 7 percent produced from the molasses byproduct of processing sugarcane or sugarbeets. Increased production of ethanol has caused global sugar carryover to decline. Agriculture is also a major consumer of energy, utilizing 30 percent of BTU’s particularly through diesel and fertilizer.   Without energy, manufacturing is dead. Germany has shown how to make its manufacturing sector suffer via dumb energy policy, such as phasing out all of its nuclear power plants and becoming fully at the mercy of the pariah state Russia for its energy needs.  ...

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 May 26 Corn closed at $4.5575/bushel, down $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.07/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.5975/bushel, up $0.005 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $314.9/short ton, down $...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Cautious Ahead of Acreage, Stocks Reports

The CBOT took a bit of a breather on Monday as traders waited for the upcoming Prospective Plantings and Grain Stocks reports, which the USDA will issue Tuesday at midday. Traders were reluctant to expand risk too much ahead of these two reports, which often change market direction and tone for...

Forlorn or Failure; Fertile or Futile; AI Impacts; Dirty Dozen Disinformation

Forlorn or Failure The spin from the WTO on the organization’s recent MC14 meetings was that a lot of decisions were adopted, progress was made, and while the event “ran out of time,” new commitments on outstanding issues can still be made in Geneva. Director-General Ngozi Oko...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

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 May 26 Corn closed at $4.5575/bushel, down $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.07/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.5975/bushel, up $0.005 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $314.9/short ton, down $...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Cautious Ahead of Acreage, Stocks Reports

The CBOT took a bit of a breather on Monday as traders waited for the upcoming Prospective Plantings and Grain Stocks reports, which the USDA will issue Tuesday at midday. Traders were reluctant to expand risk too much ahead of these two reports, which often change market direction and tone for...

Forlorn or Failure; Fertile or Futile; AI Impacts; Dirty Dozen Disinformation

Forlorn or Failure The spin from the WTO on the organization’s recent MC14 meetings was that a lot of decisions were adopted, progress was made, and while the event “ran out of time,” new commitments on outstanding issues can still be made in Geneva. Director-General Ngozi Oko...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Prospective Planting and Quarterly Stocks Reports Preview

The 2026 USDA Prospective Plantings Report is scheduled for release tomorrow. The report surveys farmer planting intentions for major crops, including corn, soybeans, and wheat. It also asks about 2025 planted and prevent-plant acres. This report gives the first real snapshot of what planted ac...

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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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