Markets were quiet overnight in very light trading volume. Everything started the Sunday evening session slightly lower, but wheat moved to small gains early this morning when French wheat futures opened higher. Among the factors impacting the markets this week will be USDA’s release of its corn and soybean production estimates along with supply/demand revisions (WASDE) on Wednesday; President Trump’s continuing escalation of the trade issues with China by threatening more tariffs; and little change in world weather forecasts. It remains dry in Australia, the Black Sea and most of Europe. Meanwhile, frost was reported across some of China’s key corn and soybean growing areas. In the U.S., Hurricane Florence will hit south...
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...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.