Hello Waivers The adage in law is to not ask questions to which you do not already know the answer. Otherwise, you might receive an answer that you do not like. That is what happened to the ethanol industry when they questioned U.S. EPA’s authority to grant hardship waivers to small refiners who found the blending requirement economically prohibitive. Today, in a 6-3 decision the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an appeals court decision limiting such waivers. The appeals court had manufactured a limitation that was not in the actual law. Corn prices fell by double digits today, but the ruling merely reverts the threshold for waivers to where it has been for most of the Renewable Fuel Program’s existence. Advantage Beef The...
Key Takeaways: The CME Group is launching new 90 percent Lean Beef and 50 percent Lean Beef futures and options contracts in July. There are five key factors that must be present in physical markets and futures contract specifications for futures contracts to become successful. The two l...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.