Farm Bill Livestock Provisions The Senate Agriculture Committee made short work of the 2018 Farm Bill markup yesterday. A total of 66 amendments (slightly more than a third of the potential 180 that were drafted) were wrapped into a manager’s amendment and adopted by voice vote. The markup was a bipartisan lovefest, and the bill was favorably reported out of committee by a vote of 20-1 with Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) the only opposing vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) participated in the markup and expressed his intention to get the farm bill to the Senate floor “before the 4th of July.” Grassley’s dissenting vote ostensibly encapsulated a great deal of angst, ranging from farm progra...
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.