Often before the release of major USDA reports we have warned that traders should not allow themselves to become too complacent about their pre-report analyses of what USDA will report. Surprising results are always possible. Monday’s report of quarterly U.S. grain and soybean stocks was a case in point. USDA’s report showed 1 September stocks of corn and soybeans were significantly lower than market expectations. The 1 September corn and soybean stocks also are ending stocks for the 2018/19 crop year that are carried over into 2019/20. USDA reported that soybean stocks are 913 million bu, about 70 million bu or 7 percent less than the average trade prediction. Corn stocks are counted as 2.114 billion bu com...
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...
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.