World Perspectives

Farm Bill Moolah; Competitive Future; Kill with Kindness?; N-Ozone

Farm Bill Moolah The farm bill is ready to begin moving in a few short weeks with the only holdup being the lack of money desired by congressional farm leaders to spend on cotton and dairy. Commodity support subsidies cost $13 billion more last year than originally forecast in 2014, partially offset by crop insurance costing $11 billion less than expected. Dairy and cotton groups want a billion dollars more to spend on their commodities, but there is no baseline for it. Consequently, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway (R-Texas) wants to find a must-pass bill to tack it onto (e.g., the continuing resolution funding the overall government). One risk is that more spending on cotton will bring back litigation with the Brazili...

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Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins improved sharply last week but remained deeply negative, with estimated net losses narrowing to -$206/head from the prior week’s extreme levels. The recovery was driven by a stronger boxed beef cutout, which rose to $371.62/cwt, while fed cattle prices moved lower on t...

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Market Commentary: Gulf Conflict Creates Volatility but Little Support for Grains

The primary drivers of Monday’s grain trade were, of course, the U.S. and Israel’s weekend attacks on Iran that killed the latter country’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and the subsequent cascade of impacts on global markets. WPI covers these impacts in more detail in our nearby ar...

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Conflict in the Gulf: Impacts on Shipping and Energy

For weeks now, global energy and geopolitical markets have been speculating about a possible conflict in the Middle East between Iran and the U.S., but they still seemed unprepared and entirely surprised by what happened this weekend. Without going into the details that news outlets have alrea...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins improved sharply last week but remained deeply negative, with estimated net losses narrowing to -$206/head from the prior week’s extreme levels. The recovery was driven by a stronger boxed beef cutout, which rose to $371.62/cwt, while fed cattle prices moved lower on t...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Gulf Conflict Creates Volatility but Little Support for Grains

The primary drivers of Monday’s grain trade were, of course, the U.S. and Israel’s weekend attacks on Iran that killed the latter country’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and the subsequent cascade of impacts on global markets. WPI covers these impacts in more detail in our nearby ar...

farm-inputs energy

Conflict in the Gulf: Impacts on Shipping and Energy

For weeks now, global energy and geopolitical markets have been speculating about a possible conflict in the Middle East between Iran and the U.S., but they still seemed unprepared and entirely surprised by what happened this weekend. Without going into the details that news outlets have alrea...

Transatlantic Sensitivities; Political Calculations

Transatlantic Sensitivities The frustration between the U.S. and Europe runs both ways, but the calculation is still one of mutual need, as articulated by American Secretary of State Marco Rubio at last month’s Munich Security Conference. Two recent data points will exasperate the White H...

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From WPI Consulting

Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming

WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.

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