U.S. corn continues to be priced above the market and even now appears to be oversupplied. Domestic surplus corn stocks are 46 percent above what would be considered a tight situation. Yet, from a historical standpoint, U.S. surplus corn stocks are 55 percent below their 1987 peak. Instead, what has happened is that China has quadrupled its surplus corn stocks in under a decade. Beijing says it is working down the surpluses but at the same time claims that its real numbers are a state secret. U.S. trade negotiators have counseled China against the folly of oversupply but have saved their direct demands for other topics. Word is that Beijing is backing away from the full 10 percent ethanol blending requirement that would have better ratione...
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.
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...