On 17 January, we reported the list of new Republican majority members of the House Agriculture Committee. At the time, the Republican side increased from 23 members to 27 under the new majority. Representative Randy Feenstra (IA-4) moved off the ag panel for a seat on the Ways and Means Committee. Now, that has already changed. Feenstra received a waiver to sit on both committees and will return becoming the 28th member of the Republican majority. House Agriculture Committee chairman Glenn Thompson said the move was to accommodate the Democratic side’s interest to have 24 members. Some new Democrat members will be named today, but at least three seats have not been determined and will be announced “at a later date.&rdqu...
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.