World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Roundup: A Look at Cattle Herd Rebuilding

As WPI reported yesterday, the total supply of beef per capita is up this year over last based on imports and heavier slaughter weights; both are related to the pace of beef cow salughter. A bigger percent of fed cattle in the mix has resulted in heavier slaughter weights, as well as feeder cattle being fed longer to heavier weights. Plus, with cow slaughter down this year after two years of culling, imports of lean trim are up.Next week, the September monthly cow slaughter totals will be released, but through August, beef cow slaughter is down 15.7 percent from last year, and 26.9 percent from 2022, and 9.6 percent from the 2018-2021 average after two years of culling from drought impact. Based on the historical averages, cow slaughter cou...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.6725/bushel, up $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9775/bushel, up $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.7175/bushel, up $0.1675 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $319.8/short ton, down $2.6...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Demand Builds, Markets Await Confirmation

Key Market Developments Macro: Playing or Trading “Truth or Dare” We’ve entered the “truth or dare” phase of this market — where conviction takes a backseat and headlines drive direction. At any given moment, the narrative shifts: progress in negotiations on...

livestock

Early 2026 Projections of Cow-Calf Finances

Cow-calf margins hit all-time record highs in 2025 as the industry benefited from the downstream impacts of record-breaking beef demand and the smallest beef cattle herd in decades. As WPI readers will know well, the resulting supply crunch boosted cattle prices across the production landscape...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.6725/bushel, up $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9775/bushel, up $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.7175/bushel, up $0.1675 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $319.8/short ton, down $2.6...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Demand Builds, Markets Await Confirmation

Key Market Developments Macro: Playing or Trading “Truth or Dare” We’ve entered the “truth or dare” phase of this market — where conviction takes a backseat and headlines drive direction. At any given moment, the narrative shifts: progress in negotiations on...

livestock

Early 2026 Projections of Cow-Calf Finances

Cow-calf margins hit all-time record highs in 2025 as the industry benefited from the downstream impacts of record-breaking beef demand and the smallest beef cattle herd in decades. As WPI readers will know well, the resulting supply crunch boosted cattle prices across the production landscape...

Iran War Impacts; Trade Agreements

Iran War Impacts Confidence in the economy is often tied to partisan politics, with Democrats seeing green when they control the White House, and Republicans ready to invest when their party is in charge. War always creates uncertainty, but uncertainty does not determine the market. A famous gr...

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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.

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