U.S. new soybean export sales have to drop back substantially at some point soon, or there have to be significant cancellations of sales. Otherwise, the U.S. is going to see exceptionally tight soybean stocks once again next summer. Large U.S. Soybean and Soymeal Export Support Market Last Friday, USDA raised its forecast for U.S. soybean exports in 2013/14 by 20 million bushels to 1.495 billion bushels (40.69 MMT). It announced daily soybean export sales to China on Monday and today that totaled 200,000 MT. It indicated in today's weekly export sales report that U.S. exporters sold 701,500 MT of soybeans last week. As a result, soybean export sales in 2013/14 now total 41.65 MMT (1.530 billion bushels). The increase in USDA's forecast wa...
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.