Biodiesel Board Establishes Overly Ambitious Goal This week the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) held its annual meeting. As part of that meeting the organization established a goal of producing 6 billion gallons of biodiesel in the U.S. by 2030 and 15 billion gallons by 2050. Any industry should establish ambitious future goals, but the goals should be achievable. While the volume of biodiesel produced in the U.S. in 2019 is not yet known, production in 2018 totaled 1.823 billion gallons. The amount of fats and oils required to produce 1.823 billion gallons of biodiesel was approximately 13.49 billion pounds (6.119 MMT). It would take 44.4 billion pounds (20.14 MMT) of fats and oils to produce 6 billion gallons or an increase of 30.9...
What You Need to Know Today: Attacks between the U.S. and Iran intensified overnight and the U.S. Central Command reported that the U.S. naval blockade against Iran will begin at 3:00 PM CDT Tuesday. President Trump said the Strait of Hormuz is open to all shipping traffic, except Iran. In an...
Beef packer margins improved to -$172/head last week, up $31 from the prior week as sharply lower fed cattle prices more than offset a seasonal decline in the Choice cutout. The cutout fell to $382/cwt while fed cattle prices dropped to $248/cwt, allowing packers to recover some of the margin c...
Key Takeaways: Aquaculture is becoming increasingly important in meeting global seafood demand, gaining market share as wild-caught fisheries face production limitations. Superior feed conversion efficiency gives aquaculture a competitive advantage over traditional livestock production, with l...
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.