Corn futures traded fractionally higher before turning down again. Soybean futures prices traded both sides of unchanged and were actually higher during much of the session before prices drifted down to close 1-2 cents lower. General Comments No one really expected a "Turnaround Tuesday" sort of rally today. The most optimistic expectation was that grain and soy markets would at least pause and take a breath after their retreat since the 11 September WASDE in which USDA significantly raised its corn and soybean yield and production estimates. USDA's new estimates were perhaps somewhat higher than expected, but not enough to blow the roof off a market that had already lost it a while ago. Still, November soybeans have fallen 57.5 cents and...
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.