The CBOT was mostly lower overnight in continuation of yesterday’s selling, but the market turned around during the day session. Wheat futures found a bid and helped corn to a higher close as well. Soybeans were on the short end of intercommodity spreads in a relatively low-volume day of trading. USDA did not announce any soybeans sales to China this morning, meaning purchases are likely suspended until tomorrow’s U.S.-Sino meetings have set a general tone for relations going forward. One would expect that positive news (i.e., tweets) coming out of the meetings would spark some additional Chinese purchases. Outside markets were dominated by the continued retracement in crude oil prices and from the Fed’s anno...
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.