World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

The livestock packing sector saw mixed trends in profitability over the past week with packer margins improving for both the beef and pork sectors. Beef packing margins have been negative for five weeks now and hog packing margins in the red for three weeks, both of which present a threat to prices for cattle and hogs. Forward-looking placement margins for feedlots and wean-to-finish producers turned higher on stronger expected/hedged sale prices and, in the case of feedlots, lower feeder cattle costs. Note that farrow-to-finish margins at farrowing hit a new four-year high at $39/head last week. In contrast, closeout margins (e.g., profits on last week’s sales) deteriorates for the feedlot industry and farrow-to-finish and wean-to-finish h...

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Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for Dec 11, 2025...

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Market Commentary: Grains Give up Gains while Cattle Turn Higher on Cash Trade

The CBOT saw its typical low-volume post-Christmas trading session on Friday, but low trading volume didn’t stop the markets from making some notable technical moves. The first of which, on a broad scale, is that early strength in corn, the soy complex, and to a lesser extent wheat, all f...

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Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.5/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.19/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.725/bushel, down $0.04 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $307.4/short ton, down $0.7 fro...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for Dec 11, 2025...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Grains Give up Gains while Cattle Turn Higher on Cash Trade

The CBOT saw its typical low-volume post-Christmas trading session on Friday, but low trading volume didn’t stop the markets from making some notable technical moves. The first of which, on a broad scale, is that early strength in corn, the soy complex, and to a lesser extent wheat, all f...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.5/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.19/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.725/bushel, down $0.04 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $307.4/short ton, down $0.7 fro...

Holiday Schedule

Financial markets will be closed on Thursday, 25 December for the Christmas holiday. As a result, there will be no Ag Perspectives report on Thursday. WPI wishes everyone a joyous and safe holiday. WPI will resume operations on Friday, 26 December. Note that Ag Perspectives will be providing ma...

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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.

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