Yesterday we covered the quarterly Hogs and Pigs report from USDA, which showed the U.S. swine herd hasn’t broken out of its down cycle; the September inventory was the third consecutive year of a smaller herd compared to the prior year and the lowest since 2017. The same thing has not been happening in Brazil, however. The Instituto Brasileiro de Geographica e Estatistica (IBGE) quarterly report on meat and livestock was released yesterday showing that through Q2 of 2022, hog slaughter was at a record high of 14.07 million head. Slaughter was 107.2 percent of the same period last year, and 132 percent of 2017. The herd build-up was driven by China’s ASF situation and the global demand for more exports, but production has...
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.