The CBOT was mostly lower to close the 2023 calendar year, a fitting end to a year that saw deeply bearish price action across the grain markets. Since the first day of trading in 2023, the spot corn market has fallen 23 percent, soybeans are down 7.5 percent, CBOT wheat lost 22.7 percent, and the KCBT wheat futures fell 25.6 percent. The cattle complex posted the best gains for the year - thanks largely to the rallies to new record highs in live and feeder cattle futures - and the spot live cattle market is up 10.7 percent from 3 January 2023 while feeder cattle gained 21.7 percent. Lean hog futures could not join the cattle market’s rally and fell 20.1 percent for the year. So, despite its excitement and short-lived rallies,...
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.