The markets are bullish and global food prices are rising but stocks of wheat, corn, and soybeans are ample. Over the past 40 years, the world’s population has increased by 70 percent. Over that same period, global ending stocks of corn are up 127 percent, surplus wheat is up 181 percent and while soybeans seem preciously tight right now, ending stocks are up 467 percent. Granted, stocks relative to use tell a different story but in contrast to the past, the world has larger reserves. Notably, the U.S. was a major holder of surplus grain 40 years ago but has ceded that role to the rest of the world, and especially to China. Most democracies do not have centrally planned reserves, though India seeks a similar role. India has not exper...
What You Need to Know Today: The September Cattle on Feed report was strongly bullish, with both the 1 September on-feed inventory and August placements coming in well below average expectations and below the bottom of their respective pre-report estimate ranges. China continues to buy U...
USDA’s September cattle on feed report was released Friday, with the total number of cattle in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounting to 11.2 million head, 101 percent of last year. Placements dropped in August to their lowest total for the month since records began in 1996...
Key Takeaways: The U.S. herd is stabilizing, but growth remains modest. Total goat inventory rose 1 percent in 2026, while meat-goat numbers increased 2 percent, which is not enough to materially reduce import dependence. Domestic slaughter is rising from a low base. Commercial slaughter incre...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.