Pragmatism versus Philosophy Farmers are generally conservative when it comes to government, except when it involves benefits for themselves. This is playing out as the U.S. Congress considers inducements for farmers to participate in agricultural carbon markets. The incentive plan is running into opposition from House Republicans who are both skeptical of climate change mitigation initiatives and concerned about increasing government tentacles into the business of farming. Meanwhile, farm groups have endorsed the plan, seeing the possibility of increased revenues and an insurance marker against accusations of doing nothing about emissions. Big Pig Agriculture groups have now formally petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn C...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
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.