The Market Soybeans were in the green on Friday morning until USDA released its bearish December WASDE report. Traders had expected U.S. carryover stocks to be reduced based on robust exports, but instead the agency raised global soybean ending stocks slightly. Croatia may have knocked Brazil out of the World Cup, but USDA only made minor tweaks to its South American soybean forecast. The report also messed with soyoil and soymeal (see below). The January soybean contract had hit a 2.5 month high the day before USDA’s report based on optimism over Chinese demand, and a view that Argentina’s output will be cut. For the week, the spot month contracts are up 45.25 cents for soybeans, a robust $47.50 for soymeal, and down 5...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.