No Ag Trade Details in Debates Democratic primary candidates for the U.S. presidency debated this week, and little was said about trade and nothing about agriculture. While the fight with China was referenced, most of the focus was on free healthcare, free college, a more open immigration policy, less guns and greater equality. As the candidates challenge each other for the support of far-left activists, one headline called it the party of bad ideas seeking to replace the party of no ideas. Agriculture is unlikely to be a focus, and candidates tend to avoid providing the nitty gritty details that support their positions on trade or any other topics. A Beef with Free Trade The EU and Mercosur surprisingly came to agreement on a tr...
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.
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...