Hope obviously abounds in the Indonesian government. Yesterday the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture forecasted that country's soybean production in 2014 at 1.5 MMT, an 86 percent increase over production in 2013. Surge in U.S. Soyoil Sales, But Maybe Not USDA reported in the last week that exporters have sold 118,900 MT of soyoil for export in 2013/14. Last Friday's regular weekly export sales report indicated soyoil sales the previous week totaled 83,900 MT, and USDA reported yesterday that an exporter has sold 35,000 MT of soyoil to an unknown destination. The sales equaled almost 23 percent of USDA's forecast for soyoil export in all of 2013/14.The problem is that last Friday's report indicated exporters had sold 42,000 MT of U.S. so...
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...
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.