Export Sales and Shipments for August 9-15, 2024. Wheat: Net sales of 492,700 metric tons (MT) for 2024/2025 were up 45 percent from the previous week and 63 percent from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 470,200 MT were down 6 percent from the previous week, but up 9 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destinations were primarily to Indonesia (131,900 MT), Mexico (87,800 MT), Japan (86,900 MT), the Philippines (66,000 MT), and Chile (53,400 MT). Corn: Net sales of 119,100 MT for 2023/2024--a marketing-year low--were down 1 percent from the previous week and 57 percent from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 1,155,900 MT were up 12 percent from the previous week and 1 percent from the prior 4-week...
Key Takeaways: The expansion of biofuel-driven soybean crushing was expected to increase soymeal supplies and pressure prices as soyoil became a larger driver of crush economics, but soymeal has instead retained considerable value. Strong domestic and global feed demand has helped absorb addit...
Beef packer margins improved to $176/head last week, up $19 from the prior week as the Choice cutout edged higher while fed cattle prices eased. The cutout rose to $376/cwt while fed cattle slipped to $222/cwt, modestly widening packer profits. Margins remain well above year-ago levels despite...
Last week, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage point to a target range of 3.75 to 4 percent. That was the first rate hike since mid-2023, and the vote was unanimous. President Trump, who nominated Kevin Warsh in March...
From WPI Consulting
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.