The Market Today’s USDA August WASDE was bullish because it showed fewer soybeans, and the market reacted by shaving almost 1 percent off the November futures contract and making it an almost 2 percent reduction in soybean prices for the week. But after brutal weather in July, it was an expected story. Predicting what numbers USDA would put into its August WASDE was deemed a challenge, and it was. Few in the trade expected a yield increase and, based on the experience of the past several years, there was a good chance that expectations for yield and output would be below the USDA number. Reuter’s analyst Karen Braun did her own survey of readers and found more expecting a number that would be to the higher side of estima...
It is hard to have a productive conversation about agricultural pesticide use. The subject carries so much ideological baggage that raising it can invite an argument—or bring the conversation to an uncomfortable silence. Glyphosate, the active ingredient most closely associated with the R...
What You Need to Know Today: Wheat futures pulled back sharply after Russian President Putin said there was a “chance” for peace and an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. There is plenty of skepticism about the opportunity for peace in Ukraine, but that didn’t stop wheat fr...
President Trump has opened the door to 100,000 MT of beef lean trimmings (limited to HTS codes 0201.30.5091, 0201.30.5097, 0202.30.5091, and 0202.30.5097) from countries listed under the “Other Countries” TRQ effective 1 September. These imports would not be subject to the over-quot...
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.