We’re half-way through the month of March, known as the ides of March on the ancient Roman calendar – marking the 74th day of the year and the traditional day in the Roman empire when debts were settled, and in 2021 America it’s the deadline to buy crop insurance (yesterday 15 March). It’s the mid-point between when the crop insurance prices are set on the first of the month, and when USDA releases its ending stocks report and planting intentions survey results on the last day of the month. Not to mention, March can be a wild weather month, so it is an intense time for planting acreage watchers to place their bets. USDA sets the crop insurance price guarantees based on the average settlement for Decembe...
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.