The beef sector experienced a week of record-breaking prices, and depressed packer margins for the week ending 1 August. Live cattle were a record $244.41 per hundredweight (cwt) for Choice steers, a $48 jump compared to the same week last year, while the cutout dropped $5.22 per pound and by m...
There were few fundamental inputs, but today’s agricultural futures markets established new contract lows for corn, SRW and HRS. There was a new contract high for feeder cattle. The market has received new private sector crop estimates and next comes crop tours and the August...
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.