President Joe Biden is handing out what could be $600 billion in student loan forgiveness just before an election. Critics argue about its fairness, and it will make some voters happy and others unhappy. There are similar contradictions in the allocation of money to agriculture. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is figuring out how to allocate $3.1 billion in loan forgiveness to farm loan borrowers, but to skew the assistance to farmers of color. An overt attempt at forgiveness based on skin color was struck down by the courts. The focus is on farm operations that are distressed and at risk, a status that doesn’t depend on skin color. Some of these operations are said to have been at risk before the pandemic, and like the now extended...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
Key Takeaways: On Friday afternoon, President Trump announced that Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the United States. The deal, typical of this administration, is light on details but promises an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 m...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
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.