Before the day session opened this morning, USDA announced a sale of 190,000 MT of soybeans to unknown for 2015/16. Although it is not necessarily due to cause and effect from that sale, soybean and soy product futures were stronger virtually all session. General Comments We wish everyone a most Happy Thanksgiving. Even in this crazy, mixed up world, there are still many blessings for which we can all be thankful!!There is a strong tendency for grain and soy futures prices to trade higher on the day before and the day after Thanksgiving. Years ago when fall harvests took longer to complete, we assumed this tendency was effectively part of a seasonal post-harvest rally. However, harvests tend to require less time and finish sooner in more...
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.