Smaller Cattle Herd Tomorrow the USDA will release its twice-per-year Cattle Inventory report – issued in January and July. Last year’s initial report was about a month late due to the government shutdown but showed that all cattle and calves in the U.S. as of 1 January 2019 totaled 94.8 million head, slightly above the 94.3 million head on 1 January 2018. Tomorrow’s report will almost certainly show a reduction in the cattle herd, which has been expanding since 2014. High feed prices from 2007 - 2013 lead to herd reduction and the 1 January 2014 report was the lowest point for the beginning of the year cattle inventory since 1951. Our estimate is that the inventory will be close to the 2017 level...
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.